Testing in Japan of this year’s domestic crop of flue-cured Virginia tobacco has been completed, and none of the leaf tested exceeded the Japan Tobacco Inc. standard value of radioactive cesium: 100Bq/kg.
JT has been conducting a number of tests at each stage of its production process for radioactive materials in Japanese domestic tobacco in order to allay consumer concern following the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011.
The company today announced the results of pre-purchase testing of this year’s flue-cured crop, which can be viewed at: http://www.jt.com/media/announcements/2014/pdf/20140807_2.pdf.
In a note posted on its website, JT said it would continue with its scheme of testing domestic leaf tobacco after purchase, and testing and monitoring a number of times at each stage of its production process.
Testing of the remaining native tobacco and Burley tobacco is scheduled to be initiated from September.