June 27, 2003
The Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries jointly conducted a survey on the current status of dioxins in farmland soil and agricultural crops in FY 2002. The survey has been conducted annually since FY 1999 based on the Basic Guidelines of Japan for Promotion of Measures against Dioxins, which were established by the Ministerial Council on Dioxin Policy on March 19, 1999.
One hundred thirty monitoring points across the nation (one to six points in each prefecture) were selected for measuring the concentration of dioxins in farmland soil and in agricultural crops cultivated there.
The results of the survey showed an average concentration of all monitoring points of 21pg-TEQ/g, with a range of 0.0017pg~200pg-TEQ/g, and all measured values were lower than the environmental quality standard (1,000pg-TEQ/g) for soil. These results are almost the same as the results of past surveys.
| FY 2002 | (Reference)Past Survey Results | ||||
| FY 2001 | FY 2000 | FY 1999 | FY 1998 | ||
| Average | 21 | 19 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| Maximum value | 200 | 280 | 200 | 180 | 130 |
| Minimum value | 0.0017 | 0.035 | 0.028 | 0.035 | 0.066 |
| Note: | The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries conducts the survey for agricultural crops and releases the results. |