Several Factors Leading to the Neglect of Pollution Related Disease: The Case of Itai-itai Disease

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  • 公害被害放置の諸要因――イタイイタイ病発見の遅れと現在に続く被害――
  • コウガイ ヒガイ ホウチ ノ ショ ヨウイン イタイイタイビョウ ハッケン ノ オクレ ト ゲンザイ ニ ツヅク ヒガイ

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<p>While Itai-itai (＝ouch-ouch) disease is one of the best known pollution related problems in Japan, it was not recognized or named for many years. One purpose of this paper is to determine the reason why it had been unidentified for decades in spite of the severe symptoms it brought on and its clear regional concentration. From interviews with the families of patients, this paper describes the process of how this phenomenon was accepted as if it were natural senile deterioration. The local government and most medical professionals also disregarded this endemic syndrome.</p><p>The extensive damage to rice crops in this region from the same mining related pollution did not alert authorities to human health problems. The local government took a rather negligent attitude during the war years and underestimated the harm, though it had recognized and tried to deal with agricultural damage.</p><p>Even after the acknowledgment of Itai-itai disease as a pollution related disease in 1968, there have been several types of neglect related to it. At first, patients with the same symptoms as Itai-itai disease and not living in the Jinzu-river district were not recognized as being pollution related disease patients. In related cases, renal disorders brought on by chronic cadmium poisoning, which causes osteomalacia, have been denied as a pollution related disease, though once it had been recognized. These official rejections have been seen as a result of some medical disputes affected by a political campaign around cadmium soil pollution problems and the criteria for cadmium poisoning.</p><p>The final part of this paper points out the possible appearance of new Itai-itai disease patients resulting from these rejections and the common features between the past neglect of Itai-itai disease and the recent disregard for renal disorder patients in relation with the social indifference to problems of minorities such as diseases of the elderly.</p>

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