Radiation tests

Skip to content

You are here: Tobacco Asia

Factory Focus

Radiation tests

Japan

Japan Tobacco Inc (JTI) has enhanced its quality assurance system in order to allay consumer concern following the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
To further enhance quality in regard to this year’s Japanese domestic leaf tobacco harvest, since the middle of August the company has been conducting radioactive material testing on the leaf tobacco before purchase, with the support of tobacco growers.
The company’s pre-purchase tests of flue-cured Virginia tobacco have now been completed, with the result that no tobacco leaf was found that exceeded the company’s provisional standard of 500 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium and 2,000 Bq/kg of radioactive iodine. The company will be conducting a number of tests at each stage of its production process when using the leaf tobacco purchased hereafter.
“We will continue to take all possible measures to ensure quality control for consumers’ continuing patronage of our products,” according to a statement issued by JTI.
A total of 35 flue-cured Virginia tobacco leaf samples from the municipalities of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Shizuoka Prefectures were tested at the company’s research centre using ORTEC germanium semi-conducting detectors for radioactive cesium 134, radioactive cesium 137 and radioactive iodine 131.
There was no tobacco cultivation in Fukushima this year due to the effects of the nuclear plant accident.
Testing of the remaining native tobacco and burley tobacco is scheduled to be initiated after the middle of September. The results of the upcoming tests will be published on JTI’s corporate website. www.jt.com.

Quarter 1, 2012

To View E-magazine manu
Log in or Register (free)

Hot Topics

Korean RTL: Low Cost, Low Tar and Low Nic Solution

By Heneage Mitchell South Korean company Tae-A was established as privately-owned company in 1972. Since that time, Tae-A has been the only reconstituted tobacco paper manufacturer in Korea.“Tae-A’s production history started when we purchased a license and technology package from Kimberly-Clark in 1976,” according to K.Y Lee of Tae-A. “Since then, Tae-A has been the only reconstituted tobacco supplier to KT&G in Korea.”

Tobacco & Public Health: Time to Move On?

By: Chris Crawley It will surprise some in the public health community, but originally the tobacco industry never intended to harm its customers with a new product: manufactured cigarettes. Why would it? It didn’t occur to the fledgling cigarette business that smoking cigarettes may be harmful. On the contrary when cigarettes were first produced they were considered a great idea. They were smaller, much more convenient and easier to carry than cigars. The packaging was novel. What wasn’t to like? They entirely suited a modern world on the move.