Two civic groups are today to meet with people and groups in Japan to gather information about radioactive contamination.
The Homemakers United Foundation and the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance on Friday said they would visit Japan’s Fukushima, Tochigi, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, as well as Tokyo.
The groups are planning to meet with up to 13 local groups, as well as parents, academics, consumers and distributors during a six-day visit to find out how the issue is being handled.
Foundation chairwoman Lai Hsiao-fen (賴曉芬) said that the group has been in contact with Japanese civic groups.
The government in August asked the foundation to join a delegation being put together to conduct inspections, Lai said, but added that the government-arranged itinerary and the information provided might have been insufficient.
That is why the foundation planned this week’s visit to learn about how Japanese local governments and groups are dealing with radiation-related risks and find out their methods for ensuring food safety.
“We hope to gather information and listen to people’s experiences so that more people can engage in public discussion,” Lai said.
“We must not only listen to the government’s side of the story, but learn the stories of local groups,” Alliance secretary-general Tsui Shu-hsin (崔愫欣) said.
Tsui said the information collected during the visit will be shared with the public through news conferences and public hearings.
On March 25, 2011, Taiwan banned imports of food from Japan’s Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures following a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011.
The groups said that the issue of importing food from the five prefectures is controversial and the government should not rashly consider allowing food imports from the prefectures before conducting a comprehensive risk assessment and gaining public trust.
Last month, members of the Green Consumers’ Foundation, another Taiwanese environmental group, also visited Japan.
The group brought its own instruments and tested radiation levels in the soil in the five prefectures.
The tests showed that the soil in Chiba Prefecture, Iwaki City and Tomioka Town in Fukushima Prefecture contained the radioactive element cesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years.
However, Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council said that the equipment the foundation used was not sophisticated enough, although it added that the figures could still have reference value.
The government is considering lifting the ban on food imports from all the prefectures except Fukushima, but has encountered vociferous opposition.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has said it is planning to initiate a referendum to decide whether to allow food imports from the Japanese prefectures.
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