Contamination Routes for Agricultural Products

Contamination routes due to radioactive fallout are roughly divided into three.

(i) The figure on the left shows the route of how radioactive fallout directly adheres to crops. High radioactivity concentrations were often detected in leafy vegetables that were grown in the fields at the time of the accident. This is considered to be due to direct contamination.

(ii) The figure in the center shows the route of how radioactive materials that adhered to fruit trees and tea trees immediately after the accident penetrate into trees and translocate* to fruits and tea shoots.

(iii) The figure on the right shows the route of how radioactive materials that fell onto soil are absorbed into crops from the roots. Contamination of crops planted after the accident is considered to have followed this route.

* Translocation: Phenomenon wherein nutrients absorbed in a plant or metabolites produced by photosynthesis are transported from one tissue to another tissue

(Related to p.171 of Vol. 1, "Transfer to Plants")

• Included in this reference material on March 31, 2013
• Updated on March 31, 2017