Morinaga Milk arsenic poisoning incident
Arsenic-tainted powdered milk killed over 100 Japanese infants in 1955.
The Morinaga Milk arsenic poisoning incident occurred in 1955 in Japan and is believed to have resulted in the deaths of over 100 infants. Arsenic was inadvertently added to dried milk via the use of an industrial grade monosodium phosphate additive. The incident also led to negative health effects for thousands of other infants and individuals, with lingering health effects.
Quick Facts
- Year of incident
- 1955
- Location
- Japan
- Estimated deaths
- over 100 infants
Facts from the source article.
Events
In June 1955, infants in western Japan began experiencing a mysterious illness with symptoms like diarrhea or constipation, vomiting, a swollen belly, and darkened skin. All were bottle-fed with powdered milk, later identified as the Morinaga Milk brand. Early news reports did not name the company; one journalist said they were quietly told to stop using Morinaga Milk for their sick child. The company was not publicly identified until August. According to William R. Cullen, Morinaga Milk showed little interest in studying the surviving affected infants, leading to boycotts in the 1960s. The company faced trial, but the Tokushima District Court found it not guilty and denied compensation to survivors. That verdict was overturned on appeal by the Takamatsu High Court on March 31, 1966. After a final appeal was rejected three years later, the Tokushima District Court found the head of factory production guilty and sentenced him to three years in prison.
Long term consequences
In the years following the poisoning, researchers carried out several studies on the survivors. Many of them continued to report ongoing chronic health issues. One study noted that adolescent survivors showed significantly higher rates of sensory deficits and mental retardation. A 2006 investigation found that many affected individuals still faced long-term health problems. Because arsenic is a neurotoxin, a disproportionate number of survivors experienced developmental delays, epilepsy, and lower IQ scores, and they were also shorter than average. During the civil lawsuit, the committee appointed to decide against Morinaga ruled that the victims' aftereffects were not caused by arsenic poisoning, but instead by prior illnesses. This committee deliberately misled the public, claiming the aftereffects resulted from an unfortunate natural disaster rather than a deliberate crime. In April 1974, the Hikari Foundation was created to assist the victims of the Morinaga poisoning. By the end of March 1983, 13,396 people had been identified as victims, with 6,389 of them in contact with the Foundation. The Foundation's work focused mainly on helping victims achieve independence and on building social conditions to support that goal. Most of its members were parents who had been part of a protection association.
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