Low level radiation ‘may have reached island’

Small amounts of radiation from Japan’s nuclear plant disaster could have reached Malta but not at levels of public concern, according to the senior manager in radiation protection within the Occupational Health and Safety Authority.

The government has sent air samples abroad for testing and was awaiting the results, said Paul Brejza, who is also the executive chairman of the Radiation Protection Board.

“It’s been detected in other parts of Europe so it could well be in Malta too. But I would not expect it to be at higher levels,” Mr Brejza told The Times.

Earlier this week reports emerged that radiation from Fukushima’s nuclear disaster had been detected across Europe at levels described by the International Atomic Energy Agency to be of no public health concern.

“Basically what’s happened is a very small number of particles of I-131 and Cs-137 have gone round the globe and been detected by certain European countries including Spain, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland,” Mr Brejza said.

The doses received from inhaling air with these concentration levels were extremely small compared with the annual background radiation dose, he added.

In Malta, equipment sucks in thousands of cubic meters of air through a machine and are transferred onto a filter paper, which in turn is transformed into a tablet and sent abroad for testing – a monitoring exercise which, he said, was carried out continuously.

The importation of foodstuffs from Japan is also being monitored for contamination.

Malta last year only brought in one consignment of pet food from the affected area in Japan.