The Environment Agency on Tuesday sent off a letter asking prefectures to check waste water from incinerators similar to the one in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, that has been found to be spewing record levels of dioxin into a local river.

At a news conference following Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, agency chief Kayoko Shimizu said the government is instructing prefectures to check the effluent water from incinerators like that at the Ebara Corp. factory in Fujisawa.

Samples taken from the Hikichi River in Fujisawa late last year showed dioxin levels up to 16 times the state's recently set standards.

The samples, part of the agency's 1999 national dioxin survey, found values ranging from 1.1 to 16 picograms per liter of water. The national standard, which went into effect in January, is 1 picogram per liter. A picogram is a trillionth of a gram.

According to Shimizu, there are around 150 incinerators around the country similar to the Ebara factory that use water to filter harmful substances from smoke before releasing it.

In the letter to prefectural water quality directors, the agency states that because "it has become clear that the inappropriate release of waste water may not only pollute public waterways, but also have a large impact on the health of surrounding residents," it requests effluent water from similar incinerators be checked and the results be reported within a month.

The agency took the step after an announcement last week that the company mistakenly fed the water directly into a stream instead of processing it.

The stream has been pouring heavy concentrations of dioxin into the Hikichi River for up to eight years.

The agency will hold its first policy meeting with the city of Fujisawa and Kanagawa Prefecture today to discuss the situation and decide what surveys to carry out to determine the extent and consequences of the pollution.

Cut industrial waste

Toshiba Corp. announced Tuesday a program to go into effect by March 2004 aimed at slashing all industrial waste produced by its plants, making it the first major Japanese electric appliance company to set such a deadline.

The five-year program will target the amount of waste produced at the company's manufacturing sites and those of its affiliates, starting in fiscal 2000, a company spokesperson said.

Under the program, Toshiba will develop a lead-free solder for use in its personal computers from fiscal 2001 and in all of its products from fiscal 2003.

The company also plans to reduce emissions of chemical pollutants from its plants by 30 percent by fiscal 2005 from the fiscal 2000 level.

The move comes ahead of planned legislation to tighten regulations on chemical pollutants and an electric home appliance recycling law to take effect in fiscal 2001.