Following a lawmaker’s recent revelation that Taiyen Biotech Co’s (Taiyen, 台鹽) salt product contains 8,860 becquerels (Bq) of radioactive potassium-40 per kilogram, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) yesterday said it is to examine the company’s manufacturing plants to ensure that workers are not being exposed to high radiation levels.
Non-partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) and former Institute of Nuclear Energy Research researcher He Li-wei (賀立維) told a news conference on Thursday that it is alarming that Taiyen’s low-sodium salt contains such a high level of potassium-40 radioactivity.
He Li-wei said he first noticed the issue on Sept. 1 when Nuclear Myth Busters member Chang Wei-hsuan (張瑋軒) left a message regarding the issue under He’s op-ed on the Chinese-language Apple Daily, adding that he had then notified the AEC, which tested 18 samples of salt on the market.
AEC’s test results showed that seven of Taiyen’s products contained high levels of potassium-40 radioactivity, ranging from 40Bq to 8,860Bq per kilogram, while levels in products from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and France vary from zero to 96Bq per kilogram, He said.
The maximum allowable level of potassium-40 is set at 10Bq per gram, or 10,000Bq per kilogram, which means that Taiyen’s products did not surpass the standard, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday in a news release.
However, the standards are for non-food products like building materials, AEC Department of Radiation Protection Director-General Liu Wen-hsi (劉文熙) said yesterday.
No other nations have set standards for natural radioactive isotopes in food, but countries will have to regulate levels in food if they reach “a certain level that will damage human health,” he added.
The agency has continued to test other salt products and plans to publish the results in the coming weeks, FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said yesterday.
The FDA will not set standards for natural radioactive isotopes in food when no other countries have done so, he added.
The FDA and AEC should discuss setting standards for levels of potassium-40 in food, He said yesterday, adding that otherwise, he would report their “dereliction of duty” to the Control Yuan.
The whole issue is a false alarm, because low-sodium salt always contains such a high level of potassium-40 radioactivity, Chang said separately yesterday.
“Low-sodium salt replaces sodium chloride with potassium chloride. Other products [that the AEC tested] were not low-sodium salt, so their potassium-40 radioactivity levels were of course lower,” he said, adding that setting standards for potassium-40 would only “disturb people.”
While the AEC said it plans to examine Taiyen’s plants, the company’s vice president, Chen Shih-hui (陳世輝), said the company would certainly cooperate and welcomes more people to probe into the issue.
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