Dear Supporters, 

Thirteen years ago the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network, FFAN (pronounced fan) held the first Becquerel Awareness Day with the motto: It's B.A.D. because Rads are bad to eat!  Every year we strive to educate young and old alike about nuclear radiation's impact on food and health. The Crisis Timeline pictured with this post features just a few highlights of the work over the last 15 years, dating back to when this Change petition was launched.

FFAN keeps it open in part because it still generates signatures plus the Change platform allows updates to be stored as an archive on the main petition page. 

Change keeps it open, even as the petition has been delivered to current and previous POTUS, and members of the House and Senate over the years.

Which leads to another motto: Don't give up!  Because the lives of our loved ones and future generations are counting on us. The petition has served as a touchstone, education tool, and yes as an archive too. 

A lot can happen in a year, and since the last Becquerel Awareness Day in 2025 the FDA finally sent FFAN a written response to the urgent letters we hand-delivered to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) leaders on Capitol Hill and via FedEx to Commissioner Robert Kennedy Jr. at HHS. (One of our letters is linked within this press release.)  We demanded long-awaited action on the FFAN Coalition 2013 Citizen Petition. Our letters cite data showing the harmful impacts of Cs-137 on health, especially for women and children (This, after MAHA repeatedly promised to address little known causes of cancer in children.) 

FDA's disappointing letter fell far short of addressing our concerns.  Their "through the looking glass" approach included claims that Cesium-137 "readily excretes" from the body and "does not accumulate in fish" which are both widely known to be false. "Readily excretes" compared to what? A radionuclide that remains hazardous longer than 300 years?  Both statements are misdirection.

And talk about timing! The FDA letter was date-stamped amidst unprecedented and historic radioactive shrimp recalls which the agency, tasked with food safety, completely failed to mention! The radioactive recalls were nonetheless widely reported by Consumer Reports, Associated Press, Martha Stewart Living, and others in the mainstream. Readers, many of them undoubtedly surprised and frightened, were warned per the CDC that Cesium-137 causes cancer and is attracted to muscle (think heart muscle, angina, and heart attacks). 

We're glad, of course, that the FDA did it's job and responded with recalls, but had their hand not been forced by Customs, it's easy to think they would have allowed the radioactive shrimp into our stores because their DIL (Derived Intervention Level) is 1,200 Bq/kg, which is 18 times more radioactive than what Customs flagged at 68 Bq/kg.  As it is, they told Customs not to worry, but the cat was already out of the bag. We need to stay vigilant.

Consumers, the general public, have a right-to-know how much Cesium-137 is in the food we're eating.  In the run-up to Becquerel Awareness Day April 10 we've been counting down a series of Radioactive Red Herrings (aka lies) that are countered with TRUTH. You'll find the countdown on Instagram. It's a great opportunity to inform a younger audience of influencers, and we need your help. If you aren't on Instagram yet, here's how. Then be sure to follow us @FukushimaFalloutAware to see what the excitement is about. :)

In any case soon FFAN will post up a Take Action sheet and info graphic as a petition update along with information regarding the recently reintroduced Federal Food Administration Act.  Talk about exciting. Legislators Rosa Delauro (CT) and Dick Durbin (IL) are working to establish a Federal Food Administration (FFA) that will be laser-focused on food safety. Before it was reintroduced earlier this year, I wrote about it for Food Safety News.

The history there is that Congresswoman DeLauro wrote to FDA in March of 2011 asking why the agency was so sure that our food supply would not be impacted by Fukushima Daiichi's widespread nuclear fallout. We're still asking, which is inexcusable. We agree that it's definitely time for a new agency, one not bogged down with non-food issues and apparent indifference to Cesium-137's impact on our food and health. 

Thanks for reading, and for your continued support. Keep sharing this Change  petition with your community network. 

Take care,

Kim 

Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/keep-harmful-radioactive-1