Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, has been warned by the prefectural government for distributing undiluted disinfectants in plastic beverage bottles in the wake of Typhoon Nabi, city officials said Thursday.

The prefecture has an order -- dating back to 1979 -- that warns municipal authorities against using food containers to distribute chemicals.

The Iwakuni Municipal Government apparently failed to heed this warning.

After Typhoon Nabi left about 2,000 houses in the city flooded earlier this month, city officials undertook a door-to-door drive to disinfect houses, the city officials said.

Amid a lack of human resources, however, the city soon decided to distribute the undiluted solutions -- which contained the disinfectants cresol and benzalkonium chloride -- to some residents, the officials said.