Yokkaichi Asthma and Building the System of Certification of Pollution-related Patients in the 1960s

FENG Danyang, HASHIMOTO Takehiko

Japan experienced severe environmental pollution in the 1960s. The present study will focus on the case of Yokkaichi asthma and analyze in particular the process of establishing the system of certification of patients diagnosed with asthma caused by the pollution. After the emergence of asthma patients in Yokkaichi, the local government took early measures, such as measuring pollutants, conducted epidemiological investigations, and creating a pollution-related certification system. The statistical data helped scientists to determine the causation between sulfur dioxide and the prevalence of respiratory diseases. As Yokkaichi asthma and leukemia were both non-specific diseases, the previously-established certification system of the atomic-bomb patients helped Yokkaichi officials and medical experts to conceive their own consistent certification system. Specific geographical areas and temporal duration were designated as two conditions for epidemiological criteria in addition to the designation of specific pathological diseases. In all of the process, Yoshida Katsumi and the Mie Prefectural University Group closely collaborated with the government through committee activities. We will show that the certification of pollution patients intended for the relief of suffering victims was constructed on the basis of numerous standardized criteria of various domains.

Yokkaichi Asthma and Building the System of Certification of Pollution-related Patients in the 1960s

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