Dioxin related lawsuit against Government of Japan

[John Visher <visherjc@crisscross.com>]

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm
June 9, 1999

                Central govt lawsuit planned

                Yomiuri Shimbun

                The group plans to file a damage suit in autumn against
the central
                government, which they claim neglected to take measures
against dioxin
                emissions, resulting in widespread contamination.

                They said that environmental administrative bodies,
including the Health and
                Welfare Ministry and the Labor Ministry, were too slow
in dealing with
                dioxin emissions.

                It will be the first suit seeking compensation from the
central government in
                connection with dioxin emissions.




             Copyright 1999 The Yomiuri Shimbun

Facility filmed for dioxin lawsuit

                Yomiuri Shimbun

                OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court on Tuesday videotaped
the Toyono
                waste disposal facility in Nosecho, Osaka Prefecture,
which is to be
                dismantled in mid-June, to preserve evidence for a suit
filed by seven former
                and current employees of the facility.

                The four former and three current subcontract employees
of Sanzo
                Environmental Engineering Co. asked the court on May 28
to preserve the
                facility as evidence, saying that it would be impossible
to confirm conditions
                inside the contaminated facility after dismantling
begins.

                About 20 people, including court officials, dressed in
protective clothing,
                entered the facility on Tuesday to videotape about 20
places.

                This is the first time that a court has accepted
preservation of evidence in a
                dioxin-related suit.

                Mitsuo Takeoka, 67, and Katsuo Hatanaka, 61, both
Nosecho residents
                and former subcontract workers, and five others worked
at the incinerator
                for up to 11 years. Some of the workers operated a crane
that carried
                waste to the incinerator, while others removed sludge
that had accumulated
                in water cooling system on top of the incineration
plant.

                Research conducted by the Health and Welfare Ministry
detected 130
                million picograms of dioxin per liter of water in the
cooling system in July
                1998, and the plaintiffs claim that structural defects
and careless operation of
                the incinerator increased the contamination.

                They also claimed to have been regularly splashed with
dioxin-contaminated
                water and to have breathed dust without adequate
protective clothing or
                masks. As a result, up to 40 times the acceptable level
of dioxin was
                detected in their blood in a test conducted by the Labor
Ministry.

                The influence dioxin has on the body, including its
potential to cause cancer,
                is not known. The five plaintiffs are not claiming for
particular symptoms.

                They fear physical disorders in future, saying that they
are like time bombs
                because they do not know what to expect after being
exposed to dioxin.

                The Toyono facility suspended operation of the
incinerator in June 1997 and
                the company decided in March to dismantle the facility
at a cost of about
                900 million yen.




             Copyright 1999 The Yomiuri Shimbun