The Japanese government said it will help more than ude people who contracted diseases because of exposure to poisonous gases produced for use in World War II.
Japan has long been criticized for having abandoned chemical weapons in China. And now there is growing concern about the possibility of substances used in these weapons have also caused several incidents in Japanese territory.
In the latest of them, residents of the town of Kamisu, north of Tokyo, complained of health problems, which led the government to experiment with water from a well. There were found arsenic levels 450 times higher than allowed.
The contamination was linked to chemicals produced during the war for military use.
About 20 residents of Kamisu, including children, had symptoms like dizziness and numbness in hands and feet. In several cases, the victims could not stand or walk normally, theMainichi Shimbun said.
Yasuo Fukuda, the government spokesman, said the Ministry of the Environment will draw up a rescue plan including payment of medical expenses.
Deputy Environment Minister Masaharu Nakagawa said he hoped the plan is completed in the next two weeks.
According to a survey by the Japanese government in 1973 and published recently, Japan threw out 3,875 tons of poison gas after World War II (1939-45).
In September, several workers became ill after contact with mustard gas and tear gas stored in bottles of beer.
In China, the Japanese would have left 700,000 chemical weapons.
The english version of this article will be available soon. In the meanwhile, the text above was the result of a Google translation from portuguese version to english.
