OSAKA -- A high school in the town of Nose, Osaka Prefecture, began conducting blood tests on its students Friday following the discovery in April of high levels of dioxin in the soil around a local garbage incinerator.The school, which has a training farm for students near the incinerator, is offering to test its current students and their teachers who worked on the farm as well as some 400 graduates who worked on the farm during the past 10 years.Last November, soil from the farm was found to have about 2.7 picograms of dioxin per gram, and school officials have closed it down.Soil near the plant turned up a dioxin density of 8,500 picograms per gram, the highest level ever detected in Japan. Health and Welfare Ministry officials suspect the source of the carcinogen to be water cooling equipment placed on top of the incinerator. The prefecture will give blood tests to residents later this month.
