Fukushima radiation from Japan's stricken plant detected across UK

Watchdog says 'minutest' levels of radioactive iodine detected at air monitoring stations pose no risk to health

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• Severin Carrell
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 March 2011 16.05 BST
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Smoke rising from reactor no 3 at Fukushima. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Traces of radioactivity believed to come from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan have been detected across the UK by emergency monitoring stations in Oxfordshire and Glasgow.

The Health Protection Agency has said that "the minutest" levels of radioactive iodine have been detected at its air monitoring stations over the last nine days, but they posed no risk to health.

The readings peaked at 300 micro-becquerels per cubic metre but averaged at a barely detectable 11 micro-becquerels over that nine-day period - readings similar to findings by monitoring stations in Switzerland and Germany.
The HPA said the dose from breathing in air "was minuscule and would be very much less than the annual background radiation dose".
It said it had expected to see these traces as a result of the Fukushima crisis, where four reactors have been seriously damaged and have emitted significant levels of radiation, in one of the world's worst civil nuclear disasters.
But the agency warned that radiation levels in the UK could rise. "Levels may rise in the coming days and weeks but they will be significantly below any level that could cause harm to public health," it said in a statement.continued