[Chemical incidents and gathering information on toxicity]

Major cases of chemical incidents and information on chemical agents and chemical terrorist attacks are outlined. Since the late 1990s, major incidents occurred consecutively, such as two cases of sarin attack in 1994 and 1995, an oil spill from a Russian oil tanker in the Japan Sea in 1997, arsenic poisoning in Wakayama in 1998, the criticality incident at Tokai-Mura in 1999 in Japan, and terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, in New York. The importance of crisis management and cooperation among relevant organizations has been emphasized. To provide information for an appropriate and quick response in emergencies, we prepared a Web portal site for information on chemicals including chemical agents, a chemical incident database, and links to relevant Web sites. In intentional cases of poisoning caused by toxic chemicals in Japan, 111 cases were collected mainly from a newspaper database (1984-1999). Many copy-cat poisonings occurred, especially in 1984-1985 and in 1998 just after an arsenic poisoning incident in Wakayama. Many cases occurred in the laboratories of institutes, universities, and hospitals where various types of chemicals are used.