Yokkaichi Asthma

views updated

Yokkaichi asthma

Nowhere is the connection between industrial development and environmental and human health deterioration more graphically demonstrated than at Yokkaichi, Japan. An international port located on the Ise Bay, Yokkaichi was a major textile center by 1897. The shipping business shifted to nearby Nagoya in 1907, and Yokkaichi filled in its coastal lowlands in a successful bid to attract modern industries, especially chemical processing, steel production, and oil and gasoline refining.

Spurred by both the World War II demand and the postwar recovery effort, several more petrochemical companies were added through the 1950s, creating an oil refinery complex called the Yokkaichi Kombinato. In 1959 it began 24-hour operations, and the sparkle of hundreds of electric lights became known as the "million-dollar night view." Although citizens took pride in the growing industrial complex, their enthusiasm waned when air pollution and noise pollution created human health problems. As early as 1953, the central government sent a research group to try to discover the cause, but no action was taken. Instead, the petrochemical complex was expanded.

As citizens began to complain about breathing difficulties, scientists documented a high correlation between airborne sulfur dioxide concentrations and bronchial asthma in schoolchildren and chronic bronchitis in individuals over 40. Despite this knowledge, a second industrial complex was opened in 1963. In the Isozu district of Yokkaichi, the average concentration of sulfur dioxide was eight times that of unaffected districts. Taller smokestacks spread pollution over a wider area but did not resolve the problem; increased production also added to the volume discharged. Despite resistance , a third industrial complex was added in 1973, one of the largest petroleum refining and ethylene producing facilities in Japan.

As the petrochemical industries continued to expand, local citizens' quality of life deteriorated. In the early years, heavy smoke was emitted by coal combustion , and parents worried about the exposure of schoolchildren whose playground was close to the emissions source. Switching from coal to oil in the 1960s seemed to be an improvement, but the now-invisible stack gases still contained large quantities of sulfur oxides, and more people developed respiratory diseases .By 1960, fish from the local waterways had developed such a bad taste that they were unsalable, and fishermen demanded compensation for their lost livelihood. By 1961, 48% of children under six, 30% of people over 60, and 19% of those in their twenties had respiratory abnormalities. In 1964, a pollution-free room was established in the local hospital where victims could take refuge and breathe freely.

Even so, two desperate people committed suicide in 1966, and 12 Yokkaichi residents who had been trying to resolve the problem by negotiation finally filed a damage suit against the Shiohama Kombinato in 1967. In 1972, the judge awarded the plaintiffs $286,000 in damages to be paid jointly by the six companies. This was the first case in which a group of Japanese companies were forced to pay damages, making other kombinatos vulnerable to similar suits. As a consequence of the successful litigation by the Yokkaichi victims, the Japanese government enacted a basic antipollution law in 1967. Two years later, the Law Concerning Special Measures for the Relief of Pollution-Related Patients was enacted. It applied to chronic bronchitis/bronchial asthma victims not only from Yokkaichi but also Kawasaki and Osaka. In addition, national air-pollution standards were strengthened to require that oil refineries adhere to air pollution abatement policies.

By 1975, the annual mean sulfur dioxide levels had decreased by a factor of three, below the target level of 0.017 parts per million (ppm). The harmful effects on residents of Yokkaichi also decreased. In 1973, the Law Concerning Compensation for Pollution-Related Health Damages and Other Measures aided sufferers of chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthma from the other affected areas of Japan, especially Tokyo. By December 1991, 97,276 victims throughout Japan, including 809 from Yokkaichi, were eligible for compensation.

[Frank M. D'Itri ]

RESOURCES

BOOKS

Huddle, N., and M. Reich. Island of Dreams: Environmental Crisis in Japan. Tokyo, Japan: Autumn Press, 1975.

PERIODICALS

Kitabatake, M., H. Manjurul, P. Feng Yuan, et al. "Trends of Air Pollution Versus Those of Consultation Rate and Mortality Rate for Bronchial Asthma in Individuals Aged 40 Years and Above in the Yokkaichi Region." Nihon Eiseigaku Zasshi 50, no. 3 (1995): 737.