“The research conducted in the United States shows that the hazardous nature of dichloromethane had been pointed out some time ago. The warning of the health hazard to humans was issued more than 20 years ago!“-Shinji Kumagai, University of Occupational and Environmental Health
Back at the end of June 2012, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced an investigation into the high rate of bile duct cancer among workers in the printing industry. Now, they are warning the semiconductor and metals industries they will be investigated as well.
The common factor is a cleaning chemical called dichloromethane (aka methylene chloride). “Dichloromethane is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in experimental animals.”-Report on Carcinogens, Twelfth Edition (2011)
According to a study by University of Occupational and Environmental Health, cancer rates among printing industry employees is 600 times higher than than the average Japanese man who dies from bile duct cancer!
The identification of dichloromethane, and other cleaning solvents, is leading investigators to look at other industries that also use those chemicals.
Japanese doctors will now question people who get bile duct cancer (or related cancers), as to what industry they work in. Health officials are concerned that industries are not taking the proper precautions, such as proper ventilation of work place.
On 10 July 2012, a report by The Mainichi revealed that workers in certain U.S. industries suffer high rates of cancer. The thing is the study was released back in 1990, not in U.S. publications but in a European magazine! (Mortality update of cellulose fiber production workers)
U.S. health researchers studied 1,271 people who worked at a factory in South Carolina between 1954 and 1977. Workers had developed liver cancer, from cancerous bile duct cells. The mortality rate was 20 times higher than the U.S. average! The main culprit; dichloromethane!
When Japanese health researchers read the study, more than a decade later, they decided to investigate Japanese industries. It was that initial study that revealed the outrageously high cancer rates of printing industry workers!