Life is Healthy

• Indonesia May Ship LNG From BP’s Tangguh to Japan
• SBY to Be Asked to Decide on Shipping Surplus Bontang LNG to Help Japan
• Japan Quake to Have Little Impact on Indonesian Coal
• Indonesia Rich-List Family Donate S$1 Million to Japan
• Indonesian Sailors Found Alive in Japan: Embassy

Russia bans food imports from Japan following nuclear incidents

Fukushima workers in hospital after radiation exposure

Japanese face radiation risks on two fronts

Mothers receive bottles of water at a distribution office
in the Adachi ward of Tokyo. The government has warned
that infants should not be allowed to consume tap water.
(Haruyoshi Yamaguchi, Bloomberg / March 24, 2011)

• Govt waiting for permits from Japan for 50 health personnel
• Traces of radioactive iodine found in tap water in Tokyo
• PMI sends two specialists to Japan
• First Lady hopes all Indonesians in Japan safe
• 330 Indonesians safe in Japan`s worst affected areas: FM

Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih. (ANTARA/Rosa Panggabean)

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, Padang, West Sumatra, Thu, 04/08/2010 3:56 PM

A 57-year-old man died and 139 residents of South Pagai Island, in Mentawai, West Sumatra, have been treated for food poisoning after consuming the meat of a leatherback turtle.

Tiolina Saogo, chief of South Pagai public health center, told The Jakarta Post 30 residents had been put under intensive care.

“We had to treat the others at their homes because of insufficient facilities on the island,” Tiolina said.

Residents of Maonai and Mapinang coastal hamlets caught the 40-kilogram turtle two weeks ago and split the meat between the hamlets.

“A few days later, all the residents that ate the meat suffered dizziness, nausea and vomiting. A man named Osael died four days after he had eaten the meat,” Tiolina said.

The health official only became aware of the mass poisoning earlier in the week after a number of residents came to the health center for treatment.

There are frequent deaths from turtle-meat poisoning on the islands off the West Sumatran coast.

Three have died in a village on South Pagai Island and two others on Siberut Island in the past two months.

Local authorities have repeatedly warned residents about their turtle-consuming habit. Aside from pork, turtle meat is the main cuisine at local traditional feasts.

Tempo Interactive, Wednesday, 24 March, 2010 | 14:27 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Cilacap:The Cilacap Police yesterday confiscated thousands of tablets and a traditional herbal drink (jamu) machine which may have contained chemical substances.

“We received a report from the local people so we immediately raided the factory,” said Cilacap Chief of Police Senior Commissioner Guruh Ahmad Fadianto.

The police also seized three bags containing 153,000 jamu tablets, 14,000 brown tablets, six buckets of jamu powder, and one tablet-pressing machine.

The police arrested the alleged factory owner, MRA, who may be penalized with 10 years imprisonment and a Rp 1 billion fine.

“They are strongly suspected of using chemical substances,” Guruh said.

A new modus may have emerged in traditional jamu production, for instance jamu producers no longer produce the jamu at home or in their own factory.

They ask local people to do the production.

The modus is also to fool the officers’ raids.

“Like this MRA, whose house is in Purwokerto but he produces the jamu in Cilacap.”

ARIS ANDRIANTO

NEW YORK (AP) -- PepsiCo plans to remove sugary drinks from schools worldwide, following the success of programs in the U.S. aimed at cutting down on childhood obesity.

The company said Tuesday it will remove full-calorie, sweetened drinks from schools in more than 200 countries by 2012, marking the first such move by a major soft drink producer.

Both PepsiCo Inc., the world's second-biggest soft drink maker, and No. 1 player Coca-Cola Co. adopted guidelines to stop selling sugary drinks in U.S. schools in 2006.

The World Heart Federation has been negotiating with soft drink makers to have them remove sugary beverages from schools for the past year as it looks to fight a rise in childhood obesity, which can lead to diabetes, heart problems and other ailments.

PepsiCo's move is what the group had been seeking because it affects students through age 18, said Pekka Puska, president of the group, a federation of heart associations from around the world. He said he hopes other companies feel pressured to make similar moves.

"It may be not so well known in the U.S. how intensive the marketing of soft drinks is in so many countries," Puska said in an interview from Finland. He added that developing countries such asMexico are particularly affected by this strong marketing.

Coca-Cola this month changed its global sales policy to say it won't sell any of its drinks worldwide in primary schools unless parents or school districts ask. The policy does not apply to secondary schools. The World Heart Federation wants all drinks with added sugars removed from schools with children through age 18.

Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, said in a statement Tuesday when asked if it would expand its policy to secondary schools that it believes authorities "should have the right to choose what is best for their schools."

PepsiCo's policy requires cooperation from its bottlers, vending companies and other distributors who take the company's products to schools worldwide. The company said it did not have exact figures for sales in schools around the world but said they did not make up a major portion of sales.

In primary schools, PepsiCo will sell only water, fat-free or low-fat milk, and juice with no added sugar. In secondary schools, it will sell those drinks along with low-calorie soft drinks, such as Diet Pepsi. Sports drinks are permissible when they're sold to students participating in sports or other physical activities.

In the U.S., the industry has swapped lower-calorie options into schools to replace sugary drinks. Sales of full-calorie soft drinks fell 95 percent in U.S. schools between fall 2004 and fall 2009, the American Beverage Association reported last week.

The industry voluntarily adopted guidelines in 2006 as part of an agreement with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative of former President Bill Clinton's foundation and the American Heart Association.

Puska said defeating childhood obesity isn't as simple as just removing sugary drinks from schools. Students must also exercise and eat better, not just at school but at home as well. Students should learn these habits at schools, he said.

Tempo Interactive, Tuesday, 02 February, 2010 | 19:31 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Makassar:Out of 800 food products from South and West Sulawesi that have been tested by the Makassar Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, 72 of them were found to contain dangerous substances.

The Head of the Makassar Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, Marigan Silitonga, explained the findings to reporters in his office in Baji Minasa Street, yesterday afternoon.

“Based on the test, 72 food products contain Rhodanin B and Borax," he said.

Rhodanin B is a synthetic coloring product usually used to color paper, textile and ink.

But it also is being used to color food such as crackers, shrimp paste, icy drinks, meat balls and the majority of red colored stall foods.

This substance is carcinogenic and can damage the heart and digestion system.

Borax is an antiseptic which is usually used to make detergent.

Borax is also found in noodles, meat balls and crackers.

This substance could cause nausea, upper stomach pain, diarrhea, sleepiness, fever, headache, digestion system irritation and liver failure.

Maringan said that the food product brands containing the dangerous substances are among others soft noodle “Lumba-lumba” produced by Sumber Pangan Gowa, yellow “Lumba-lum ba”noodles, “Yammie” meatballs produced by Fadilla Makassar Gowa, and special “Siga Putra” crackers produced by Sidoarjo Indonesia.

ABDUL AZIS

Timeline: China milk scandal

Melamine-tainted milk products have been found on sale in China, more than a year after thousands of children became ill in a huge safety scandal.

Products made by three different firms were found to contain melamine and have now been removed from supermarkets in Guizhou province, officials say.

Melamine is an industrial chemical that can be added to watered-down milk to increase its protein content.

Six children died and some 300,000 became ill from tainted milk in 2008.

If ingested in sufficient quantities, melamine can cause kidney failure and kidney stones.

The companies involved in the latest recall blamed the contamination on milk powder they had bought as a raw material to add to their products, state media reported.

An official involved in the 2008 investigation told China Daily the powder may been part of that recalled batch which was still circulating on the market.

"There were still some leftovers in the dealers' hands that nobody cared about," said Wang Dingmian, former chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Dairy Association.

Mr Wang said the government's regulation of milk products was too weak and that companies should be required to test every batch they used.

China says 21 people have been convicted over the 2008 scandal, including milk producers, traders and executives of the Sanlu milk company.

In November 2009, two people were executed for making and selling hundreds of tonnes of melamine-tainted milk products.