WIREDGOV

The Health Protection Agency, Environment Agency and Scottish Environment Protection Agency monitoring stations have reported further minute traces of radiation associated with events at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan. Overall, the levels are lower than those observed in the previous update published on April 21.

The levels being detected mean there is no risk to public health in the United Kingdom from the environmental concentrations resulting from the release of radioactive material at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The monitoring equipment is extremely sensitive and can pick up trace levels well below any potential risk to human health.

Notes

1. The HPA, Environment Agency (EA), Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) have jointly been providing updates of their monitoring findings associated with the Fukushima event via the HPA website. The next update will be published at 2pm on Thursday May 19. However, as SEPA is returning to routine sampling frequency from today (May 5), it will now be making data available on a monthly basis for the HPA updates.

2. Air Monitoring - Weekly Averages

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The volume of air sampled in a week at the different locations varies due to the different equipment used. This does not affect the measured levels in air.

4. Tables of other environmental data can be viewed on the HPA's Environmental Monitoring webpage.

5. For further information about radiation and the Japanese incident please go to the HPA website page on the HPA response to events at the Japanese nuclear power plant.