Adkin Amie, Rylands Kay, Goodman Jessica, Oatway Wayne, Uy Frederique M, Edge Joanne, Potter Claire
Food Standards Agency, London, UK.
UK Health Security Agency, London, UK.
Risk Anal. 2025 May;45(5):1105-1114. doi: 10.1111/risa.17643. Epub 2024 Sep 12.
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.
2011年，一座核电站受损，导致日本部分地区受到放射性污染。欧洲出台了相关立法，对某些类型的食品和饲料进口进行管控，包括规定每千克放射性铯的放射性衰变每秒限值为100次（贝克勒尔，Bq）。英国脱欧后仍保留了这项立法，并于2021年进行了审查。开展了一项定量风险评估，以估计如果取消放射性铯的最高限量，食用进口到英国的日本食品对公众健康造成的辐射风险。尽管日本的监测数据显示存在产品超过每千克100贝克勒尔限量的情况，但发现这种情况很少见；在本评估范围内的所有被测食品样本（超过100万个）中，共有1485例（0.0013%）的放射性铯活度浓度超过每千克100贝克勒尔。根据记录的放射性铯出现情况和测量水平，以及目前从日本进口食品的模式和数量，估计每年致命癌症的额外风险约为百万分之一，与2018 - 2020年英国约四分之一的基线癌症死亡率相比可忽略不计。基于上述评估和估计的微小额外风险，英国取消了与日本食品中存在的放射性相关的进口管制。针对本次评估中的数据差距和方法提出了一些建议，特别是关于如何改进针对特殊食品的英国饮食习惯建模。
