By ELAINE KURTENBACH and SHINO YUASA
Associated Press
TOKYO – Anxiety over Japan’s food and water supplies soared following warnings about radiation leaking from Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant into Tokyo’s tap water at levels unsafe for babies over the long term.
Residents cleared store shelves of bottled water after Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said that 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 need, 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 Wednesday, despite a limit of two, two-liter bottles per customer.