CBC

Sun Jul 16, 4:17 pm

First death reported in Japan's milk scandal

Japan's contaminated milk crisis is getting worse and may now be responsible for one death. The problems started two weeks ago when infected milk was sold by Japan's leading producer.

But now the whole dairy industry is under suspicion. And the Japanese public is questioning the safety of all its food.

An 84-year-old woman who became sick after drinking tainted milk more than two weeks ago has died.

Police say she may be the first fatality in a contaminated milk crisis that has made about 14,000 people ill. They're now considering charges against Japan's leading milk producer of negligence, resulting in death.

The company, Snowbrand, has closed all 21 of its plants in Japan and they'll be inspected next week by government health officials.

Now other milk companies are also coming under suspicion after media reports that hygiene standards throughout the industry are lax.

Media reports suggest that the Japanese public, which used to think that its food industry had among the highest safety standards in the world, is very concerned.

The latest batch of media reports include a dairy company in the north of Japan which recalled packages of cheese tainted with pvc (polyvinyl chloride)  and a noodle maker in southwest Japan who recalled 150,000 packs of mouldy spaghetti.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), July 17, 2000

Answers

This is really a weird one. Can't figure this one out at all.

-- Billiver (billiver@aol.com), July 18, 2000.

The wide spread nature of this dairy problem can only make you think process control. And, process control on this scale can only remind you of y2k.

-- JackW (jpayne@webtv.net), July 18, 2000.