merrion street

The National Co-ordinating Group met today (25 March, 2011) to review matters in relation to the situation In Japan. The group have already met on four previous occasions. The group is chaired by the Department of Environment, Heritage & Local Government. The group is comprised of a number of key departments and groups, which includes the (RPII) Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, Department of Foreign Affairs and the (FSAI) Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

The RPII have been monitoring the situation since the outset of the emergency and continue to do so.

Any contaminant released into the atmosphere will disperse and spread away from the point of release in accordance with the prevailing weather patterns. This dispersal will involve significant dilution of the contaminant, with lower concentrations expected as distance from source increases. While there is potential for radioactivity arising from leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi site to be detected in Ireland, any levels of radioactivity detected are likely to be very small – within the variation in normal background levels. To date, no increase in radioactivity attributable to the accident in Japan has been detected in Ireland. The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) has advised that the potential for significant contamination to reach Ireland is remote.

Ireland has a network of permanent radiation monitoring stations distributed across the country. The monitoring stations continuously measure gamma radiation and if elevated radiation levels are detected, an alarm system is automatically triggered in the RPII. In addition, the RPII operates a network of air and rainwater sampling systems.

(For further information see the website of the RPII, www.rpii.ie)

The RPII’s monitoring systems are designed to detect radioactivity at levels far below those that could have health impacts. While it is very unlikely that the radiation releases in Japan will have implications for Ireland, the monitoring at these stations has been intensified to provide assurance on this point.

It is not considered that there is any necessity for people in Ireland to take Iodine tablets. These are only of use to some people if taken before or immediately following exposure to radioactive iodine. While radioactive iodine has been released from the stricken Japanese nuclear power plants the release was local to the plant, and none has reached, or is likely to reach, Ireland.

For people returning to Ireland from Japan, it is not considered likely that they will be subject to radioactive contamination. Where anyone has concerns, however, they should contact the Health Service Executive (HSE).

(For further information, see the website of the Health Service Executive, www.hse.ie.)

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) assess two aspects of this incident:

1. the possibility of a risk to consumers in Ireland arising from consumption of contaminated food imported from Japan

Monitoring of foodstuffs in Japan has found radioactive contamination in milk, spinach and water. However, movement of these products has been restricted. Japan is only authorised to export four products of animal origin to the EU and no establishments in the Fukushima region are authorised to export products to the EU. Ireland has very few direct imports from Japan.

From this weekend, new controls will be introduced within the EU to harmonise monitoring and testing of food imports from Japan. These will require a pre-export check to be carried out by Japanese authorities, combined with controls at the points of import within the EU.

2. foods contaminated within Ireland, as a result of radioactive contamination carried and deposited here in weather systems.

According to the RPII, the radioactivity released from Japan will not contaminate foodstuffs here to any extent and will not have any health implications for Ireland.

(For further information, see www.fsai.ie)

Irish citizens in Japan should observe the advice being given by Japanese authorities, including the 20km exclusion zone around the Fukushima facility, and that residents between 20-30 kilometres of the facility should remain indoors, keep windows and doors closed and not use ventilation. Local information is available on: www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/topics/2011/earthquake2011tohoku.html

Avoid all travel to the affected area. Additional advice is available on the website of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs - www.dfa.ie

Met Éireann has been monitoring this situation since the first news of possible radioactive contamination of the atmosphere. The ability of Met Éireann to respond to emergency events in distant parts of the globe and to provide relevant advice to the Dept of Environment, Heritage and Local Government (DEHLG), the Radiation Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other statutory bodies, derives from its active membership of a number of international collaborative bodies in the field of Meteorology.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is a European collaborative organisation which has developed the best weather forecast models in the world and which runs these models operationally twice daily. As a full member of ECMWF, Ireland, through Met Éireann, has access to the entire range of products and services provided through this facility. In the present situation, Met Éireann staff members have been running “trajectory” models on the ECMWF computer system daily since the nuclear incident developed; these provide trajectories, at different levels in the atmosphere, of how contamination released at Fukushima moves over a period of many days. For further information log onto www.met.ie