Mesothelioma Death Rate in Japanese Town Soars Above National Average

A report in the Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, cites a recent study by the Environment Ministry which shows that residents 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.

The study points out that the rate was particularly high among women living near factories in Amagasaki that produced asbestos, with those figures sometimes reaching as high as 69 times the national average.

According to the article, the survey included about 180,000 people who lived in the city from 1955 to 1974, a time during which asbestos particles were scattered from asbestos-related plants. The last plant closed in 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 across the country who died from this aggressive form of cancer.

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 asbestos 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.

Despite the figures, the ministry did not see an immediate need to address the asbestos issue. “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. Others, however, hoped that the study would prompt calls for revisions to Japan’s special measures law, allowing it to better compensate victims of asbestos.

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