Abstract
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.
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