Describe the case study of environmental degradation caused by PCB & Kanemi’s Oil?

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.