US EPA

598316 

Book/Book Chapter 

The Yusho rice oil poisoning incident 

Masuda, Y 

1994 

Springer 

New York, NY 

Dioxins and health 

633-659 

English 

10.1007/978-1-4899-1462-0_19 

BCI:BCI199598434946 

has other version or edition 199735 The Yusho rice oil poisoning incident
is a chapter of 2206103 Dioxins and health

A mass poisoning, called Yusho, occurred in western Japan, mainly in Fukuoka and Nagasaki prefectures, in 1968. Yusho was caused by ingestion of rice oil that was contaminated with Kanechlor-400, a commercial brand of Japanese polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).1 It was later found that the rice oil had been contaminated not only with PCBs but also with polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs),2 polychlorinated quaterphenyls (PCQs),3 and others. Consequently, Yusho was a poisoning by a mixture of PCBs, PCDFs, PCQs, and others. A very similar mass poisoning, called Yu-cheng, occurred in central Taiwan in 1979, 11 years after the Japanese Yusho incident.4,5 These two incidents of food poisonings are very valuable as a source of information concerning the toxic effects of these chemicals on humans. Several books and reviews on the broad fields of poisonings have been published.6–10 This chapter updates the rice oil poisonings, primarily focusing on Yusho. 

Schecter, A 

9781489914644; 9781489914620