WEEKLY SELECTION: Environmental Risks Trigger Wave of Fear in Japan

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jan 23 1999 (IPS) - Keiko Matsudo, 39, eats only organic food and cooks only with bottled water.

She covers the few electronic products she has at home with wide cotton drapes, believing this will reduce the risk of contamination from “harmful” substances emitted from her refrigerator, television and washing machine.

Many might say Matsudo is overdoing things, but she gave up her nursing job a few years ago to devote her spare time to help volunteer groups working to protect the environment and expose the harmful effects of environmental damage to people.

“I am spending my time usefully,” says the earnest, no- nonsense woman. “The government is dragging its feet on this issue and its natural to fear our lives are in danger.”

While not everyone goes as far as Matsudo, Japanese’ awareness and concern about reports of polluted water, soil and air are growing. Many are reacting nervously, in some cases desperately.

“The situation is really awful,” says a 51-year-old woman who lives near an incinerator. “I live with the constant fear of being diagnosed with cancer and my daughter has just announced she will not be having any children for fear having deformed babies due to her exposure to harmful chemical substances.”

A recent spate of media reports quoting scientific data and surveys indicate alarming levels of pollution that have been found to have drastic consequences not only on the environment, but also on wildlife, animals and people.

For instance, residents in Tokorozawa, a once green suburb of Tokyo, are suffering while the local government struggles to clear the air of high levels of dioxin. Several hundred picogrammes of dioxin have been detected in the soil, generated from waste incinerators built two decades ago, according to the Environment Agency.

The rumpus forced the government to release in December the results of an air pollution report conducted for fiscal 1997 that ended in April 98. It found that 14 out of 68 sites in 11 prefectures exceeded recommended levels of dioxin, trichloroethylene and benzene, a potent carcinogen contained in gasoline.

These chemical compounds, viewed as dangerous ‘environmental hormones’ that disrupt normal reproductive functions in people, are produced when plastic and other chemical products are burned.

Reports sent in by a hospital in Obihiro, in Hokkaido, raised a chilling picture when doctors found malformations in foetuses, including partially formed brains and abnormal urinary tracts in boys. The foetuses had anencephaly, a deformity linked to high concentrations of dioxin or other dangerous chemical compounds.

While studies are still being conducted to verify that the mothers of these foetuses, which were aborted, had indeed been exposed to dioxin, doctors have not ruled out the need to conduct more tests, reports ‘Aera’ weekly magazine.

Likewise, last year there was heated discussions between the public and industry on the use of polycarbonate tableware in schools.

Growing concern that polycarbonate contains bisphenol A, a type of environmental hormone, forced the education ministry to pass a law that allows each municipality to decided on whether to terminate the use of such tableware.

Bowing to parental pressure, some schools have stopped the use of such tableware. The education ministry said this month it will spend 160,000 U.S. dollars to conduct tests to allay public fears.

High amounts of chemicals, including DDT insecticides suspected of being hormone disrupters, are also believed to be contributing to the demise of the golden eagle, Japan’s prized rare species that is facing extinction.

Likewise, according to an Environmental Agency study released in December, PCB or polychlorinated biphenyl has been found in the air for the first time.

PCB, which had been found in water and soil before, is a poisonous pollutant that accumulates in animal tissue. It has been since the early seventies after it was found to cause food poisoning.

The Environmental Agency reports that it has set aside yen 10 billion for research to be conducted on the effects of environmental hormones on people.

“Nothing has been proved yet and we are still in the process of collecting scientific data to stop unfounded public fears,” said an official at the Environment Agency.

As the Japanese public become wary of more products that for them contain harmful substances, industry officials say these people are worrying over exaggerated risks.

“It is really too much,” an official of the Japan Styrene Industry Association, maker of polystyerene foam cups for ‘ramen’ or instant noodles that some consumers are avoiding. “There is no need for concern because our tests have shown these cups are safe.”

“It will take a few years more for conclusive tests on the issue for instance that environmental hormones are responsible for low sperm counts in Japanese men,” Thoru Inoue of the National Institute for Chemical Safety said, adding that nothing has yet been proven to support the public’s fears.

“But I cannot dismiss the potential risk of these chemicals,” he added.

Whatever the experts say, stories are mounting about the rise in cancers, the leading cause of death in Japan, allergies that cause excruciating headaches and sensitivity to everyday products that force some people to wear masks the whole day.