【明報專訊】The impact of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan has not yet been fully felt. Samples of food imports from the country, including two of radishes (小蘿蔔) and one of spinach (菠菜), were found to be with iodine-131 (碘-131), a radioactive substance that may cause thyroid (甲狀腺) cancer. The contamination levels were between 1.6 and 9 times above normal. Therefore, on March 24, Hong Kong banned the importation of all fruits, vegetables and dairy products harvested, manufactured, processed or packed on or after March 11 from the quake-affected prefectures (縣) — Chiba (千葉縣), Tochigi (櫪木縣), Ibaraki (茨城縣), Fukushima (福島縣) and Gunma (群馬縣).