• March 29, 2024

Japan’s flue-cured gets clean bill of health

Japan Tobacco Inc. said today that Japan’s flue-cured tobacco had been tested and found to be free of radioactive contamination.

The Company has been conducting a number of tests for radioactive materials at each stage of the production process of Japanese domestic leaf tobacco in order to allay consumer concerns that arose following the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011.

‘Prior to this year’s Japanese domestic leaf tobacco harvest, the company has again been conducting radioactive material testing on leaf tobacco before purchase, with the support of tobacco growers,’ JT said in a note posted on its website.

‘Testing of this year’s flue-cured Virginia tobacco has now been completed, showing none of the leaf tobacco tested exceeded the JT standard value (Radioactive cesium: 100Bq/kg). ‘Further, JT will 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.’

JT said that testing of the remaining native and Burley tobaccos was scheduled to be held from September.

The results of the upcoming tests would be included on the corporate website: http://www.jt.com.