Mesothelioma Death Rate Among Amagasaki Residents 14 Times the National Average
The Asahi Shimbun
People who lived in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, from the 1950s through 1970s were 14 times more likely to die from asbestos-related mesothelioma than the national average, an Environment Ministry survey showed.
The rate was particularly high among women living around factories in Amagasaki that used asbestos, with the figure soaring up to 69 times the national average, according to the survey.
The results of the survey showed the strong likelihood that severe health hazards stemming from the cancer-causing substance had spread widely to areas outside the plants.
The high figures for Amagasaki could also fuel calls for revisions to the special measures law to compensate victims of asbestos.
The Environment Ministry conducted the survey in Osaka, Hyogo and Saga prefectures to determine the scale of health hazards caused by asbestos.
The results were made public Monday at a panel meeting in Tokyo discussing the health effects from asbestos. The panel is chaired by Iwao Uchiyama, professor of environmental health at the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University.
Mesothelioma is a form of a lung cancer caused by inhaling highly toxic asbestos.
For the epidemiological survey conducted in Amagasaki, the ministry covered about 180,000 people who lived in the city from between 1955 and 1974, during which asbestos particles were scattered from asbestos-related plants, until late 2001.
Among the data used for the survey was information on 42 people who died from mesothelioma in the city from 2002 through 2004, and the rate of people who died from the lung cancer across the country.
In Amagasaki, the mortality rate for men ranged between 3.3 times to 12.1 times the national average, depending on age groups, the survey found.
The figure for women ranged from 10.4 times to 14.5 times the national average.
The mortality rate for women living in the city's Oda district, where Kubota Corp.'s former Amagasaki plant and other asbestos-related facilities were concentrated, was between 29.6 times and 68.6 times the national average.
The figure for men in the area ranged from 10.6 times and 21.1 times the national average.
This is the first time for a government entity to come up with specific figures on health hazards stemming from asbestos.
But the ministry said it will not conduct additional research in Amagasaki, citing among other reasons the scant information available about people who died from the lung cancer.
"It cannot be said that the survey immediately showed that there is a higher risk of developing the disease (by inhaling asbestos particles) through the general environment," a ministry official said.
In addition to Amagasaki residents, the ministry's survey covered people living near asbestos-related facilities in the Sennan district in southern Osaka Prefecture and Tosu in Saga Prefecture.
In the three areas, six people who could have inhaled asbestos particles in places other than worksites showed signs of lung asbestosis.
To collect more information, the Environment Ministry, by the end of March next year, will conduct research in Nara Prefecture, Yokohama's Tsurumi Ward and Hashima in Gifu Prefecture, where asbestos-related facilities were located, the officials said.
But Uchiyama said it would be better to conduct such a survey on a nationwide scale.
"About half of the population in Amagasaki has moved out of the city since that period," Uchiyama said. "They could develop mesothelioma in the areas they eventually settled in." (IHT/Asahi: May 29,2007)
*** POSTED MAY 29, 2007 ***