🔗 Share this article

An extensive industrial zone located on the outskirts of Jakarta is dealing with radioactive contamination after an official team found traces of the hazardous isotope Caesium-137 at twenty-two manufacturing plants inside the site, that includes businesses shipping frozen seafood.

Urgent Measures and Goods Recall

This discovery has triggered immediate cleanup efforts and the moving of local inhabitants, coming after a similar contamination alert in the United States that was linked to the Indonesian plants.

An important multinational store chain is one of the businesses that have recalled products from its stores after the discovery.

Investigation and Discovery of Contamination

The country's officials initiated an investigation when the American FDA detected Caesium-137, a nuclear isotope, in a shipment of frozen coated prawns sent by an Indonesian firm.

The FDA issued an advisory instructing suppliers and sellers to dispose of the goods and not sell it, although the found level was well under the agency's intervention threshold. It added that the quantity of Caesium-137 it had found would not pose an acute risk to the public.

The FDA explained: “The primary impact on health of concern after extended, ongoing low dose exposure (for example through consumption of contaminated products or liquid over time) is an elevated risk of the disease, resulting from harm to DNA within living cells.”

Widespread Contamination and Medical Checks

Radioactivity tests revealed at least twenty-two factories in the industrial zone were affected. The Indonesian team did not identify the 21 additional production facilities, but said they would promptly receive decontamination procedures carried out by Indonesia's atomic energy authority.

A senior official stated that people living in highly polluted zones would be moved until the site was decontaminated, adding that the well-being of the inhabitants was the “top priority”.

Health authorities also conducted checks on local employees and people located near the manufacturing zone, identifying nine individuals who showed signs for contact to Caesium-137. These individuals were sent to a hospital before being allowed to return home.

Cleanup and Containment Plans

The affected sites will right away receive decontamination operations by the national nuclear institute. Officials have further designated the site of a scrap metal plant as an containment center for contaminated materials.

The country, which has no atomic energy facilities or arms program, suspects that Caesium-137 may have come into the nation from abroad.

Origin of Contamination and Trade Limits

An official spokesperson informed reporters that scrap metal shipments were the probable cause of pollution and confirmed the government would immediately impose restrictions on metal waste arrivals. It was stated that vehicles were additionally being checked for possible contamination as they moved through the area.

About Caesium-137 and Public Concerns

Caesium-137 is a hazardous radioactive element that usually appears in the environment as a result of atomic experiments or incidents, such as the Fukushima disaster or Chornobyl. Trace quantities are present in soil, products and air.

The amount detected in the frozen shrimp was much less than regulatory intervention limits, but the agency stated prolonged exposure to including small amounts of caesium was associated to an higher chance of cancer.

Recall Information

The withdrawn shrimp was sold at major store locations across at least a dozen American states, such as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia.