WHO spokesman: Japan food safety situation "serious"

WHO spokesman: Japan food safety situation "serious"

BEIJING | Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:42am EDT

(Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Monday that the detection of radiation in food after an earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear plant was a more serious problem than it had first expected.

"Quite clearly it's a serious situation," Peter Cordingley, Manila-based spokesman for WHO's regional office for the Western Pacific, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"It's a lot more serious than anybody thought in the early days when we thought that this kind of problem can be limited to 20 to 30 kilometers," he said.