Interview by Yuki Lei
In an interview with The Macau Post Daily late last month, eco-activist Joe Chan Chon Meng, who heads the Macau Green Students Union, urged the government to seize the discharge of treated radioactive water by the Japanese government from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean as an opportunity to raise awareness of the general population about radiation hazards and safety, while carrying out measures to prevent a possible crisis to any damage to nearby nuclear plants in the future.
Chan made the remarks at his group’s office in the city centre.
Chan said: “Macau people indeed lack education on radiation”, adding that in addition to artificial radiation, human beings are also exposed to “quite a lot of” natural radiation in their daily lives in terms of the Sun’s rays and some building materials, as well as when travelling on an aeroplane.
“The recent salt panic buying reflects the public’s lack of education about radiation,” said Chan, who underlined that eating table salt does not help prevent anyone from being affected by nuclear radiation, but could lead to dehydration and even death if much more than the normal range that human organs can bear is consumed.
Chan pointed out that the discharge of radioactive water will cause nuclear pollution to surrounding sea life, which will affect the global oceans, resulting in an increased amount of artificial radiation. He underlined that “the radioactive element – tritium– in the water could increase the risk of getting cancer.”
Japan began on August 24 its 30-year-long plan of discharging radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered major damage from a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and large-scale tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. The central government in Beijing has come out strongly against the Japanese ill-fated nuclear plant’s discharge of radioactive water, citing the risk to humanity in general, and public health in particular.
Chan said: “What worries me the most is that Japan is still planning to go ahead with its thirty-year schedule,” which would pose, he added, a great impact “to the entire planet”, adding that the discharge of the radioactive water might not impact Macau residents’ health in the short term, but he did not rule out any possible risk in the long term.
Concerning other possible damage to nuclear plants elsewhere such as in Taiwan and Guangdong, Chan said: “We [Macau] may have to set up a comprehensive review of the use of radioactive materials.”
The local government ban since late last month on the import of live and fresh food products, food products of animal origin, sea salt and seaweed from 10 areas in Japan, covering vegetables, fruit, milk and dairy products, as well as aquatic products, meat products, and eggs, among others, is based Executive Order No. 134/2023 published in the Official Gazette (BO).
The Macau government and mainland authorities have made public safety their top priority and implemented measures in response to Japan’s discharge of radioactive water into the sea, including their ban on the import of Japanese aquatic food products and regular radiation tests on Japanese food products, “But do the measures do enough to prevent people from coming down with radiation sickness?” asked Chan, who was quick to add that evaporation from the ocean leads to rainfall and, therefore, in the future, not only aquatic food products from Japan pose a radiation hazard, but also other foodstuffs such as vegetables from elsewhere, which could be contaminated by precipitation with radiation materials.
Consequently, radiation tests on all food products imported into Macau could be necessary in the near future, Chan noted.
Eco-activist Joe Chan Chon Meng, who heads the Macau Green Students Union, speaks to The Macau Post Daily during an interview late last month at his office in the city centre, where a raft of eco-friendly-related workshops take place on a irregular basis.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
