Mad Cow Scare in Japan

[Guest guest]

http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0208/asahi020801.html

 

Question is will the disease take root here?

 

No one seems too worried about food products, but cosmetics and medical

supplies are another matter.

 

Asahi Shimbun

February 8, 2001

 

The scare over the mad cow disease that panicked beef lovers in Europe has

spread to Japan, but the concerns here are over the use of animal

derivatives in cosmetics and medicines rather than the meat itself.

 

Even so, the government is worried and therein lies part of the problem. In

essence, the government is in a state of policymaking confusion. Officials

also candidly admit they are hamstrung by a lack of knowledge about the

mechanisms of infection.

 

The issue grabbed the attention of women, in particular, when the

then-Health and Welfare Ministry publicized a list late last year of animal

derivatives it was banning in the manufacture of cosmetics and medical

supplies.

 

There are major contradictions in the way government departments have tried

to cope with the problem with the result that food regulators are less

worried than health authorities, who are responsible for food and medicine.

 

Health authorities have reacted strongly, having learned their lesson the

hard way several years ago when they came under intense public criticism

over the sloppy way officials had handled imports of contaminated blood

products.

 

Cosmetics made headlines because of a recent boom in lotions to ``whiten''

facial skin, which contain placentae of cows.

 

The ban also included the use of cattle intestines for sutures and cattle

lungs in the manufacture of anti-inflammatory medicines.

 

Mucous membrane from cattle intestines for use in anti-coagulants also was

banned.

 

By January, cosmetics makers were inundated with telephone calls from

anxious members of the public after consumer co-operatives announced they

would stop selling skin whiteners.

 

``But is it safe to continue using whitening cosmetics?'' one woman wanted

to know.

 

At that point, as many as 600 companies sold cosmetics using placentae,

according to a source close to leading cosmetics manufacturer Shiseido Co.

 

Mad cow disease-or more properly bovine spongiform encephalaopathy-gets its

name from the way cows behave before they die of the disease.

 

The first worldwide scare occurred when the British government announced in

March 1996 that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease-the human version of mad cow

disease-is connected to cows and is fatal to humans.

 

The second scare came last autumn when herds in France was found to have the

disease. Cows across the French countryside were slaughtered and buried in

pits so they could not be processed for human consumption.

 

The disease has since spread to Germany and Spain.

 

 

 

Experts contend that beef is safe to consume so long as cattle are

slaughtered and managed properly.

 

World Health Organization statistics show that 91 people had the disease

between 1996 and last December. Eighty-seven of them were in Britain, three

in France and one in Ireland.

 

After the health ministry announced its ban, a leading cosmetics company

started using vitamin C instead of placenta extract for its whitening

products.

 

Another major company said it, too, would make the switch.

 

``We're afraid that consumers will think that all skin whitening products

are bad (because of the mad cow disease scare),'' said the representative of

a cosmetics maker who wished to remain anonymous.

 

An official with an Osaka-based medical supplies maker which produces

anti-inflammatory medicines said the ministry's ban had a major impact on

company revenues because sales of the drug-one of its leading items-amount

to several billion yen each year.

 

The company has been given three months to find an alternative to cow

derivatives in its products.

 

While the ministry ban was specific, it did not order stores to remove

products containing cattle derivatives from their shelves immediately.

 

A company that manufactured medical sutures using cattle intestines imported

from Australia and Brazil stopped selling them at the end of January and

switched to synthetic stitches, although the cost can be twice as much.

 

Manufacturers say the government policy is loaded with inconsistencies.

 

``I don't understand the logic that it is OK to eat raw meat, but the use of

animal derivatives in the process of producing cosmetics is banned. I just

don't get it,'' said the public relations manager of a leading cosmetics

company.

 

The official was right on the mark. The government now bans the use of

placentae, brains and intestines of both domestic and imported cows for

medical supplies and cosmetics, but there is no edict against importing

cattle offal for human consumption, except those from countries specified by

the ministry.

 

On Dec. 21, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry banned the

import of pulverized bones and meat for use in animal feed from from 17

nations including the European Union.

 

Under pressure from the health ministry, the ban was expanded the next day

to include beef and processed byproducts, according to agricultural sources.

 

 

However, less than 1 percent of all imported beef comes from Europe.

 

An agricultural official said, ``From our standpoint, it would be going too

far if Japan banned all beef imports from the United States and Australia

since there have been no reports of mad cow disease in those countries,''

the official said.

 

The official contended that Japan, therefore, should not be overly worried

about mad cow disease taking root in this country.

 

The official, who spoke anonymously, said the newly renamed Ministry of

Health, Labor and Welfare had no regard for costs when it announced the ban.

 

 

``We are caught between the interests of medical administrators and the

agriculture ministry,'' said an official whose work involves food safety at

the health ministry.

 

Copyright 2001 Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or

republication without written permission.