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Dear Jack, I bought a Japanese import in July. I am aware about the strict controls that have been putted in place after the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan but, I had a look on some articles online on the NZ Heralds about this matter, especially one today about a Japanese dealer tried to sell cars in south east Asia, so my question is: how we can be sure our imported car has not been contaminated? Is it possible to bring our car to any service equipped with tools to perform a radioactive contamination check? Thank you for your attention and kind regards. Stefano

To be honest I don’t know the answer to this question. We simply have to trust the Government and those departments responsible (Ministry of Health) to ensure all products coming out of Japan are safe and the necessary checks are in place.

To date we have been assured this is the case.

A recent article in the NZ Herald said National Radiation Laboratory (NRL) staff have checked hundreds of vehicles arriving at Ports of Auckland on car carriers from Japan but no levels of radioactive contamination of any health significance were detected.