Indonesia detects traces of radiation at farm as probe expands

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesian authorities found traces of radioactivity at a clove farm on Sumatra island, a government spokesperson said Tuesday, as Jakarta expanded an investigation launched after the US health authority detected Caesium-137 contamination of spices from Indonesia.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently said it had detected the presence of Caesium-137 in a sample of cloves from PT Natural Java Spice during screening after the radioactive isotope was also detected in August in a sample of frozen shrimp from Indonesia.

The Indonesian government then launched an investigation, with inspection teams sent to a processing facility and a farm on Java island and another farm on Sumatra, task force spokesperson Bara Hasibuan told AFP Tuesday.

He said the team only found traces of radioactivity at the clove farm in Lampung, Sumatra, without disclosing further details, adding that the government had banned the farm from selling its cloves as a preventive measure.

“Until there is a conclusive finding, we requested that the cloves from the farm are not being sold,” Bara said, adding that Indonesia’s Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency, or Bapeten, was testing samples from the farm.

“We must determine the source, how come the cloves there are contaminated.”

The finding comes after authorities detected traces of Caesium-137 in at least 22 facilities at the Cikande industrial estate, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) west of Jakarta.

The government has tightened restrictions in the area and has carried out inspections of vehicles for potential contamination.

It has also suspended imports of scrap iron and steel, reportedly the source of contamination, until a monitoring system for radioactive materials is “fully strengthened”, environment minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said in an Instagram post.

The FDA has banned products from the two Indonesian companies until they are able to demonstrate they had resolved issues that allowed the contamination to occur, the agency said.

The agency also said shrimp and spices from certain regions of Indonesia would require import certification from late October, based on the risk of potential contamination with Caesium 137.

The FDA issued a recall in August after the radioactive isotope was detected in shrimp exported by the company PT Bahari Makmur Sejati.

The agency said long-term exposure to even low doses of Caesium-137 is linked to an elevated risk of cancer.

The radioactive isotope, which is created via nuclear reactions, is used in a variety of industrial, medical and research applications.