Japan's Chemical Weapons Still Claiming Casualties

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Japan's Chemical Weapons Still Claiming Casualties

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Another person was hospitalized Tuesday in northeast China after exposure to chemical weapons left by Japanese troops during the Second World War, bringing the number of victims to 36 by 10 a.m. Tuesday. ��

Zhao Chunfang, the newest victim in Qiqihar City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, claimed to be suffering a painful reaction to the mustard gas around his eyes, scrotum and buttocks.

Doctors at the No. 203 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, where the victims were being treated, said the conditions of two seriously injured patients had improved, but they were still underclose observation.

Authorities in the city was engaged in cleaning the contaminated sites and earth, officials said.

Soldiers in protective clothing and gas masks disinfected pilesof contaminated soil in a refuse dump in the southeastern suburbs of Qiqihar.

Special forces also removed all the earth from a city high school which was directly contaminated, said Li Jian, the officialin charge of the clean-up.

The contaminated areas also include a construction site and a waste recycling site.

The chemical weapons, discovered last week at a construction site, were stored in five metallic barrels, one of which was accidentally broken, causing an oil-like substance to leak out into the soil.

Unaware of the nature of the material, two workers later boughtthese five barrels, cut them into parts, and then soldthem to a waste station in a residential community.

The situation worsened when the polluted soil from the construction site was removed to several different places.

Technical experts later confirmed the substances in the five barrels were chemical weapons left by the Japanese army during theSecond World War and the oil-like stuff was mustard gas.

But since the latent period of the effect generally ranged fromseveral hours to several months, medical care would continue, warned doctors.

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