Calm Down, Local Products Free Of Cesium-137! BPOM And BRIN Supervise Domestic Market Strictly

Deputy for Food Control at BPOM, Elin Herlina, in a media briefing (ANTARA/Putu Indah Savitri)

JAKARTA - The Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) has confirmed that it has not found any contamination of Cesium-137 (Cs-137) radioactive substances in products circulating domestically.

"Not yet, not yet (discovered)," said BPOM's Deputy for Food Control, Elin Herlina, in a media briefing on the Development of Diplomacy in Handling Shrimp and Cengkeh Products with Interestholders in the United States" at the Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Food, Jakarta, Antara, Wednesday, November 12.

Elin explained that BPOM routinely conducts sampling and safety testing as well as product quality circulating in the domestic market.

In addition, BPOM is also working with BRIN to detect the possibility of radioactive contamination, including cesium.

"In fact, we are exploring the expansion of laboratory coverage in order to be able to carry out radioactive contamination testing. So that there are many alternatives that can be used to accelerate testing," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Communication and Diplomacy Division of the Cs-137 Handling Task Force, Bara Krishna Hasibuan, emphasized that the government has worked hard to ensure pollution does not spread, following the findings of Cs-137 contamination of several export products.

It is known, in addition to shrimp and cloves, footwear products exported to the United States and the Netherlands were also detected to contain radioactive Cs-137. Bara explained that cases of footwear contamination occurred in the same time span as cases of shrimp and cloves.

He emphasized that the contamination was not caused by the company's production process, but was due to exposure from the surrounding environment.

"This is purely an accident. The Cs-137 contamination was carried by the air, the source of which was from a factory owned by PT PMT," said Bara.

The government through the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) has confirmed that 22 production facilities in the Cikande Modern Industrial Estate (MCIE), Serang, Banten, have been successfully decontaminated, while seven locations outside the area are still in the process of being cleaned.

The decontamination was carried out by the Cs-137 Radiation Hazard Management Task Force together with Bapeten and other related institutions.

Previously, Dutch Customs and Excise also reported radionuclide contamination in sneakers products from Indonesia. The results of the Dutch radiation authority (ANVS) examination showed an increase in radiation exposure of up to 110 nanoSv/hour higher than normal background radiation of 20 nanoSv/hour due to exposure to Cs-137.