High radiation found in herb

Press, 26 June 1987, Page 1

High radiation found in herb

By YVONNE MULDER Radioactive foodstuffs were given; a health clearance by French officials - before they were sent to New Zealand. A certificate for a shipment of oregano saying the product was fit for human consumption proved worthless yesterday after random tests found high levels of radiation, r ;

The principal health protection officer in Christchurch, Mr Brian Prendergast, said it seemed the Health Department would have to test everything now, and he conceded that radioactive products could have,.come into New Zealand already. “We test everything from the countries closer to Chernobyl but only do some checking on the countries further away, such as France,” he said. The National Radiation Laborary has been checking all Laboratory uncertified food imports for radioactivity levels since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in April last year.

The Health Department’s head office in Wellington would probably liaise with the French authorities to check what stand-,, ards they used and exactly how, they tested the shipments of foodstuffs, Mr Prendergast said. The certificate said “our general sampling” proved these goods fit for human consumption. Mr Prendergast said the department would need to find out just how general the sampling was, and whether the * French had tested this specific shipment. The 1000 kg of oregano arrived with a shipment of three other herbs — sage, parsley and thyme, but these showed no signs of contamination, said Dr Murray Matthews, head of the National Radiation Laboratory’s environment section in Christchurch.

He said his department had tested 20g of oregano and found the radiation level to be five times the safety limit. "It registered 3200 becquerels a kilogram, and the safety limit

is.6oobq of. caesium 137 a kilogram,’’ he said. \ The; oregano would not dp a lot ... of harm,said.Dr.Matthews.-y--“You would -• have to eat a pound a day for a year, to? get a significant level of radiation.” However, it was above the safety limit and so it could not be released.

The readings were fairly typical of agricultural products in Europe about a year sago, he said. The oregano would have been exposed to the radiation as it grew.

The oregano and other herbs were imported by Archem Trading and arrived in the container ship Moreton Bay at Port Chalmers on May 25. The cargo is now in a Christchurch warehouse. ' The manager of Archem Trading, Mr Robert Hardy, said the shipment came from his normal supplier of culinary herbs. He received a supply like this about every six months. The others had been “good as gold.” he said.