Run on Indoneisan Coconut-shell purifiers, shortage of charcoal due to radiation crisis

[Liberal_in_LA]

Radiation in Tokyo Water Stokes Run on Indonesian Coconut-Shell Purifiers

By Kanoko Matsuyama and Jason Gale - Apr 3, 2011 11:27 PM

Efforts to protect Tokyo’s tap water from radiation leaked by a damaged nuclear-power plant have led to a run on Indonesian coconut husks.

Granulated charcoal, made of shells of coconuts and oil- palm kernels, is being used by treatment plants in Tokyo and neighboring regions to filter tap-water supplies. Prices for the absorbent carbon material have risen as much as 44 percent since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the radiation threat, said Yoshio Toi, a spokesman for the municipal government in Chiba, a prefecture neighboring Tokyo.

Treatment plants are trying to remove any traces of radioactive matter, such as iodine-131, known to cause thyroid cancer, and convince customers that water supplies are safe. Some Tokyo facilities more than quadrupled the amount of activated charcoal used in filtration after a March 21 sample contained iodine-131 that exceeded the safe limit for infants.

“Tokyo is ordering more activated charcoal as we deplete our stocks,” said Gen Ozeki, a spokesman for the city’s Bureau of Waterworks. “It’s not just Tokyo doing this, others are taking extraordinary measures for their water, too, so charcoal is becoming scarce.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-04/radiation-in-tokyo-water-stokes-run-on-indonesian-coconut-shell-purifiers.html

[Turborama]

1. K&R Interesting. Also, Conflict in Ivory Coast May See Indonesia Corner Cocoa Market

Paradise Island, Bahamas. Cocoa production in war-stricken Ivory Coast will likely fall over the next two years, leaving other producing nations — including Indonesia — to pick up the global slack from the top grower, Macquarie Bank’s Kona Haque said on Saturday.

“Right now there’s not a lot of incentive for farmers to tend to the midcrop . They probably don’t even have workers there,” Haque said during a panel discussion at the Cocoa Merchants’ Association of America conference in the Bahamas over the weekend.

Ivory Coast has so far produced a bumper crop in the current 2010-11 crop year, thanks to ideal weather conditions produced by the La Nina phenomenon. However, an export ban has tied up what many estimate to be 500,000 tons of beans at the ports. The ban helped lift US cocoa futures to a 32-year high at $3,775 per ton last month.

However, high cocoa prices have failed to encourage farmers in parts of Indonesia, the world’s third-biggest producer, to regenerate their farms, said Peter Petersen, an analyst and director of Amo Delta.

Full article: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/conflict-in-ivory-coast-may-see-indonesia-corner-cocoa-market/433212