Quantitative risk assessment of radiocesium associated with Japanese foods imported into the United Kingdom

TL;DR

This paper assesses the health risks of radiocesium in Japanese food imported to the UK and concludes the risk is negligible.

Contribution

The study provides a novel quantitative risk assessment of radiocesium in Japanese food imports post-2011 nuclear incident.

Findings

Only 0.0013% of over a million Japanese food samples exceeded the 100 Bq/kg radiocesium limit.

Estimated annual cancer risk from radiocesium is about one in a million, much lower than baseline UK cancer rates.

UK import controls were lifted based on the negligible risk identified in the assessment.

Abstract

Damage to a nuclear power station resulted in radioactive contamination of certain areas of Japan in 2011. Legislation was put in place in Europe to establish controls on the import of certain types of food and feed, including a limit of 100 radioactive decays (becquerel, Bq) per second of radiocesium per kg. This legislation was retained in the United Kingdom after leaving the EU and then reviewed in 2021. A quantitative risk assessment was developed to estimate the radiological risk to public health from consuming Japanese food imported into the United Kingdom should the maximum level on radiocesium be removed. Although Japanese monitoring data indicated occurrences when products exceeded the 100 Bq per kg limit, these were found to be rare; a total of 1485 occurrences (0.0013%) of all measured foodstuff samples (>1 million) within the scope of this assessment had radiocesium activity concentrations that exceeded 100 Bq per kg. Using the recorded occurrence and level of radiocesium measured, and the current pattern and volume of food imported from Japan, there was an estimated excess risk of fatal cancer of around one in a million per year, categorized as negligible compared to the baseline 2018–2020 UK cancer fatality rate of around 1 in 4. On the basis of the described assessment and the estimated small additional risk, Great Britain lifted import controls related to radioactivity present in food from Japan. A number of recommendations to address data gaps and approaches in this assessment are made, particularly how we can improve modeling UK dietary habits for specialist foods.

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