ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: ‘Sick House Syndrome’ Leads to Safer Buildings

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 30 2003 (IPS) - Hiroyuki Uehara remembers well the day his children complained of smarting eyes, headaches, and tiredness. It was 1993, and the dentist and his family had just moved into a brand new house that symbolised well their brand new future.
     Or so they thought. For a year later, Uehara had reason enough to coin a phrase in Japanese for the strange condition afflicting his children. He called it ‘sick house syndrome’.

Hiroyuki Uehara remembers well the day his children complained of smarting eyes, headaches, and tiredness. It was 1993, and the dentist and his family had just moved into a brand new house that symbolised well their brand new future.

Or so they thought. For a year later, Uehara had reason enough to coin a phrase in Japanese for the strange condition afflicting his children. He called it ‘sick house syndrome’.

”I took my children to eye doctors, large hospitals, and even the local public health centres,” he recalled. ”But everybody was puzzled. I realised what the problem was when I smelt a strange odour coming from the wood panels in my house.”

That realisation, and the trauma of seeing his children suffering, led Uehara in 1994 to form the Sick House Syndrome Association, a non-profit organisation based in Osaka, Japan’s second largest city.

It has a single objective – to make Japanese buildings safe for their residents. Today, 700 members have joined Uehara in his crusade. Victims of ‘sick house syndrome’ number among the members, who also include doctors, chemists and lawyers.

Uehara explained that when he first began investigating the problem, nobody quite understood its size and scope. What emerged from the initial explorations and collection of data and evidence was that a veritable witches’ brew of chemical pollutants was being used in Japan’s homes and apartment blocks.

There is formaldehyde, a volatile substance often used as an adhesive in flooring or in synthetic resins found in plywood and panelling. When inhaled regularly over a long period it can lead to a skin condition called dermatitis, which is characterised by itching and scaling of the skin, and can be accompanied by headaches and nausea.

According to data gathered from polls carried out by Japan’s Infrastructure Ministry in 2001, 37 percent of homes built over five years ago were found to have levels of formaldehyde that exceeded the permitted level of concentration, which is 0.08 parts per million.

Then there is chlorpyrifos – a highly toxic insecticide sprayed on wood to ward off termites – and toluene, a paint thinner, that can cause severe allergic reactions.

Usually a silent menace, ‘sick house syndrome’ was in the national headlines this month when three nursery teachers received compensation from the government, in a first for Japan. The reason? They have suffered acute headaches and fatigue caused by exposure to formaldehyde while working in temporary premises in May 2001.

The relentless activism of Uehara’s group and the new awareness has yielded results. This July, following studies on the growing harm to residents who have bought houses built with cheap construction material that contains dangerous chemicals, the government put into force a new Building Standard Law to control the practice.

The step is viewed as ”revolutionary” by sufferers of ‘sick house syndrome’. Measures have been put in place to ban the use of materials containing chlorpyrifos, and the new law enjoins construction companies to limit the use of formaldehyde in building materials.

Punitive measures can come into play too. Local governments may order the closure of buildings and impose fines on building operators if they fail to abide by improvement orders.

”While there is still much to do, the new law is a landmark as it marks the first time in 32 years that the government has revised legislation covering construction materials,” pointed out Taro Ajiro, spokesman for the Centre to Support Chemical Sensitivity, a civic group launched two years ago to help victims.

According to Ajiro, some victims have been so severely affected that they have been forced to sell their homes. His surveys reveal that the most affected are families whose members are in their late thirties and forties – women comprise 70 percent of the victims of ‘sick house syndrome’.

He explained that this age group is most susceptible due to their high stress levels from mid-career demands, while middle-aged women with hormonal imbalances renders them vulnerable to the strong effects of chemicals.

Activists have also begun lobbying for better medical assistance for sufferers. They have accused the Ministry of Health of procrastinating about developing clear guidelines to recognise and treat the symptoms.

”Many sufferers have reluctantly allowed doctors to diagnose them as mentally ill in order to apply for medical support, when in fact their symptoms stem from reactions to chemicals in buildings or homes,” explained Ajiro.

Nor is that the only legal complication. Some affected residents are negotiating with construction companies for compensation or for renovation of their dwellings – they cannot sue the government because their homes were built when no laws existed to prohibit the use of these chemicals.

Awareness of the problem is growing in the industry too. Hiroo Saito, the proprietor of F and K Construction company, whose work includes the removal of dangerous chemicals from affected homes, said the most effective way of stopping the syndrome is the enforcing of tough anti-chemical laws.

”Only a complete ban on these harmful substances can bring change,” he emphasised, while acknowledging that this is easier said than done.

Uehara views the problem as multi-dimensional. ”Discarding used polluted materials causes environmental damage when these chemicals are released into the air and soil,” he said. ”Now is the time to reverse policies that have achieved Japan’s economic advancement at the cost of peoples’ health and the environment.”

Yet he takes heart from his own efforts and that of the Sick House Syndrome Association, for he sees change coming from growing public consciousness, the positive reaction of the authorities, and the untiring campaigning by activists.

The result, he said, is that ”Japan has moved forward steadily towards developing safer homes and buildings”.

ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: ‘Sick House Syndrome’ Leads to Safer Buildings

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 30 2003 (IPS) - Hiroyuki Uehara remembers well the day his children complained of smarting eyes, headaches, and tiredness. It was 1993, and the dentist and his family had just moved into a brand new house that symbolised well their brand new future.
     Or so they thought. For a year later, Uehara had reason enough to coin a phrase in Japanese for the strange condition afflicting his children. He called it ‘sick house syndrome’.
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