Water in Toyko deemed unsafe for infants

TOKYO -- Radiation leaking from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant has caused Tokyo's tap water to fall short of safety standards for infants to drink, officials said yesterday, sending anxiety levels soaring over the nation's food and water supply.

Residents cleared store shelves of bottled water after Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said levels of radioactive iodine in tap water were more than twice what is considered safe for babies. Officials begged those in the city to buy only what they needed, saying hoarding could hurt the thousands of people without any water in areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

"I've never seen anything like this," clerk Toru Kikutaka said, surveying the downtown Tokyo supermarket where the entire stock of bottled water sold out almost immediately after the news broke, despite a limit of two, two-liter bottles per customer.

The unsettling new development affecting Japan's largest city, home to around 13 million people, added to growing fears over the nation's food supply.

Radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has seeped into raw milk, seawater and 11 kinds of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips, from areas around the plant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was halting imports of Japanese dairy and produce from the region near the facility.

Hong Kong went further and required that Japan perform safety checks on meat, eggs and seafood.

Officials are still struggling to stabilize the nuclear plant, which yesterday belched black smoke from Unit 3 and forced the evacuation of workers. The plant has been leaking radiation since the quake and tsunami knocked out its crucial cooling systems.