Tokyo, October 10, 2019 --- Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) has been conducting pre-purchase and a number of other tests at each stage of its production process for radioactive materials in Japanese domestic leaf tobacco, using a standard value, since the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in 2011.

Prior to this year's Japanese domestic tobacco harvest, the Company has again been conducting radioactive material testing on leaf tobacco before purchase, with the support of tobacco growers. Testing of this year's Burley have now been completed, showing none of the leaf tobacco tested exceeded the JT standard value (Radioactive cesium: 100Bq/kg).

Furthermore, JT will continue with its scheme of testing domestic leaf tobacco after purchase, and testing and monitoring a number of times at each stage of the production process.

Testing scheme for purchase and use of this year's Japanese domestic leaf tobacco

We will continue to take all possible measures to ensure quality control for consumers' continuing patronage of our products.

An outline of the pre-purchase tests and results is presented as follows.

Outline of pre-purchase testing

  • Leaf tobacco: Cured Burley
  • Geographical scope: Tochigi, Fukushima, and Miyagi
  • Items: A total of 22 samples from the above prefectures
  • Material: Radioactive cesium (JT standard value: 100 Bq/kg)
  • Institute and equipment: The Company's research centre and ORTEC germanium semi-conducting detectors

Results of the pre-purchase testing

The samples of Burley tobacco from the following areas were tested:

Tochigi Prefecture
Otawara (Kawanishi), Nasu-gun Nasu (Nasu), Nasushiobara (Kuroiso, Takabayashi, Higashinasuno, Nabekake)

Fukushima Prefecture
Shirakawa (Shirasaka), Kitakata (Komagata), Motomiya (Iwane, Wagisawa, Shiroiwa), Kawanuma-gun Yanaizu (Yanaizu), Kawanuma-gun Aizubange (Katakado, Yawata), Date-gun Kawamata (Iizaka, Yamakiya), Nihonmatsu (Obama, Ota), Minamisoma (Kamimano)

Miyagi Prefecture
Kami-gun, Kami (Miyazaki)

For the samples in the 22 areas, none of the leaf tobacco tested exceeded the JT standard value.

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Japan Tobacco Inc. published this content on 10 October 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 10 October 2019 07:15:02 UTC