Saitama gov't may file suit over contaminated water from Tone River
SAITAMA —
The Saitama prefectural government is considering filing a damages suit for damages caused by the contamination of water in the Tone River by formaldehyde contamination from a water purification plant last month.
The water supply to tens of thousands of households in Saitama and Chiba prefectures was cut off for two days after local checks found it was contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical. More than 210,000 households were affected.
Saitama Gov Kiyoshi Ueda said he will discuss the issue with hie legal advisers and Chiba prefectural officials, TBS reported Tuesday.
Formaldehyde is a colorless chemical with a pungent odor, classified as a human carcinogen by the Lyon-based International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Chiba stopped taking water from a branch of the Tone River after detecting elevated levels of formaldehyde.
The worst reading was seen in Saitama, which temporarily stopped taking water at a filtration plant that on Friday detected contamination of 0.200 milligrams of formaldehyde per liter, more than two times the 0.080 milligram national limit.
Japan Today/AFP
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0
edwardstark
So what is the origin of the formaldehyde?
1
Equality
0
keika1628
I would hazard a guess at your question "edwardstark" formaldehyde is also used in cosmetics and of course disinfectants . pointing the finger at cosmetics I am alluding to a very famous brand which is manufactured in Shiseido Kuki Factory
-1
gogogo
Find the cause please!
0
Cricky
It will prove to be far to confusing for the courts ( can't make trouble for a company)
-7
Stuart hayward
Just by the way this story is being covered, I can tell that they won't get to the bottom of it. The large amount's of This chemical is easy to trace to it's origen's!
-7
Stuart hayward
Sorry for type o, (Origin's) of large amounts of chemicals would have been easy to trace if we started to look within The fist week of finding!
0
wanderlust
A simple look at the map or a boat ride/ walk up the river bank would have revealed the source of the contamination.
But maybe the fear of losing advertising revenue from a 'famous brand maker' is stopping them publishing names...
1
edwardstark
You are reading it wrong Equality. The plant took water from the Tone that contained the formaldehyde, failed to detect it, and then distributed it to people in Saitama and Chiba. Saitama wants to sue the plant for distributing tainted water. I think the plant might actually be owned by the Tokyo government?
Formaldehyde has been detected as far as Gunma in the Tone. The river flows southeast. So the source cannot be in Chiba or Saitama.
And why would a water treatment plant be doing with formaldehyde anyway?
Again, I wonder what the origins are.
-2
smithinjapan
I hope the envelope doesn't make him say yes.
0
tokyokawasaki
May file suit?
How about making a decision. I hate the typical J-weak statements such as: "Maybe, might, depends, probably"... Please just say yes or no.. Stop beating around the bush and make a decision. Please :)
-2
basroil
Yet the WHO limit is more than twice the amount found, and the safe limit for brief exposure (which this was) is five times that. Japan needs to relax on their absurd safety laws, most of the time you get more issues from nature than from anything else added to the water (like the fact that arsenic using factories actually REMOVE arsenic from river water, since that water originally started in arsenic rich rocks).
edward, formaldehyde is a anti-parasitic and antimicrobial solution added to kill off bugs in the water that you drink. It is generally filtered out after use, along with all the dead bugs that would give you nasty bowel irritation.
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