Low levels of caesium-134 detected in Hainan

China has detected 10 cases of radioactive contamination in the country since March 16, an official with the country's quarantine watchdog said Saturday.

High levels of radiation have been found on people, planes, vessels and containers entering China from Japan, said Li Yuanping, a spokesman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. The AQSIQ has ordered local quarantine authorities to intensify radioactive analysis of articles entering the country after radioactive fallout from Japan's crippled nuclear plant, the spokesman said.

A ship, a plane and a batch of imported material were the latest three cases reported to the administration on Friday. They had entered the country through Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

Separately, except for Qinghai Province, all the provincial areas on the Chinese mainland found radioactive iodine-131 in the air yesterday, said China's National Nuclear Emergency Coordination Committee.

Beijing found both iodine-131 and caesium-137, while the provinces of Guizhou, Shandong, Shanxi and Hainan found iodine-131, caesium-137 and caesium-134. The committee said the radioactive substances detected were at extremely low levels and wouldn't harm the environment or people.

Shanghai detected low levels of iodine-131 on Saturday.