In Southern  Japan,  in 1968  a large  number  of people  suffered  by disfigurement  of skin, discolouration, fatigue, numbness, respiratory distress, vomiting and loss of hair.

–    10,000 people got affected & some died

–    Two groups of 121 people each were tested and results were as follows:

•     It was found that fried food using rice oil produced by Kanemi company was eaten which caused the problem

•     After 7 months of investigation….

–     It was found that the presence of Polychlorinated biphenyl-PCB was the cause for the effects and it was present in the rice oil.

–     Rice  Oil  was  heated  at  low  pressure  to  remove  the  odour  thro’  a  heat exchanger and a liquid known as KANECHLOR  which contained  PCB was used for heat transfer

–     Pipes  of the  heat  exchanger  was  corroded  and  led  to  leakage  thro’  those pinholes.

–     In fact,  Kanemi  had  been  replenishing  27  kgs of lost  PCB  per month  for sometime without realizing the seriousness.

•     Indirect path – this rice was used as chicken-feed and half of one million chickens that were fed died.

Other Similar Effects:

Plastic bakery wrappers containing PCB mixed with  ground stale bread was used as chicken-feed and 140000 chickens had to be slaughtered in New York.

PCB  leaked  into  fishmeal  from  a heating  system  in North  Carolina  plant  and

12000 tons of fishmeal were contaminated and 88000 chicken, fed with fishmeal had to be destroyed.    High pressure injection of water near Baldwin Dam in Los Angeles caused the reservoir crack open along a fault line. The water released killed 5 and damaged property worth $14 million.