Cadmium poisoning redress eyed

Kyodo

TOYAMA – Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co. will agree to pay ¥600,000 in lump-sum compensation to every patient in the early stage of a cadmium poisoning renal disease caused by one of its mines, sources said Saturday.

The disease affected people in the basin of the Jinzu River, Toyama Prefecture, due to cadmium released from the company’s Kamioka mine. Causing kidney dysfunction and bone softening, it is one of the four major pollution-related diseases that emerged in postwar Japan.

The agreement to be signed Tuesday with a victims’ group will signify a comprehensive settlement of the decades-old issue.

Under the accord, the company will compensate patients whose urinary concentration of a protein called beta-2 microglobulin is 3,000 micrograms per liter or more. Around 500 to 600 people are expected to receive the ¥600,000 compensation deal.

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  • Ron NJ

    So the lesson here is … hold out long enough and you can buy out the surviving victims for absolutely paltry sums of money? You’d have to pay more blood money per victim if you accidentally broke someone’s arm here!

  • saxophone

    That’s horrible. Mitsui is offering almost nothing to survivors of a terrible crime.

    Wikipedia says itai-itai disease was first diagnosed in 1912.

    Early stages? Is anyone still alive from this time? Again, according to wikipedia, 15 are.

    Kyodo news – bringing us six sentences worth of news about one of the top four worst deliberate industrial catastrophes in Japan.