Mark Baker / AP Photo
Japanese authorities announced on Wednesday they are recalling some 400,000 cans of baby formula that have been found to have trace amounts of radiation from the country’s devastating nuclear disaster earlier this year. The formula had traces of radioactive cesium, but the manufacturers of the formula, Meiji Co., said it had no way of knowing how many tainted cans had reached consumers because it was made in March and shipped in April. Meiji officials said that babies would not suffer ill health effects even if they drank the contaminated formula every day, but some environmentalists questioned this claim. Wednesday’s warning came on the heels of the news that 45 tons of highly radioactive water leaked from a filtration system at an atomic plant, making the baby-formula news the second time this week that authorities have warned of continuing aftereffects from the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant following the March earthquake.