OSAKA -- Workers who dismantled part of a dioxin-contaminated garbage incinerating facility in Osaka Prefecture have been diagnosed as having high concentrations of dioxins in their blood and probably inhaled vaporized dioxin, Labor Ministry officials said Saturday.
The Osaka Labor Bureau said in a report that the secondary dioxin poisoning was possibly caused when the workers used gas burners on parts of the structure, vaporizing the dioxin.
On Tuesday, the Labor Ministry is scheduled to report the bureau's findings to a government committee made up of experts on environmental pollution. The ministry said in July that as many as 5,380 picograms of dioxin per gram of blood fat were detected in the blood of workers who helped dismantle the incinerator in the town of Nose -- the highest level ever detected in Japan. One picogram is one trillionth of 1 gram.