Experts say gyoza cases exaggerated / Believe many people mistakenly attributed symptoms to food poisoning

More than 2,700 people have reported suffering health problems in the wake of a report that pesticide-contaminated gyoza produced in China had sickened 10 people in Japan, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

Yet since the original 10 cases, no further examples of organophosphate poisoning have been confirmed.

Experts say mild cases of poisoning by minute traces of organic phosphorus may have been overlooked. But they believe in most cases people are probably mistakenly attributing their symptoms to food poisoning.

On Jan. 30 it was learned that 10 people from three families in Chiba and Hyogo prefectures had developed food poisoning symptoms after eating frozen gyoza dumplings made in China. An organophosphate pesticide, methamidophos, was found in the gyoza and on the packaging.

According to the health ministry, 2,745 people have complained to public health centers of feeling sick after eating the same product or similar ones. Of these, 884 visited a doctor.

On Feb. 1, two days after the initial report, the Shizuoka prefectural government received a report from a health center in the prefecture of a suspected case of organophosphate poisoning.

According to the health center, a woman in her 50s reported suffering from nausea and numbness of the tongue after eating Chinese-made frozen food.

The prefectural government reported the case to the health ministry and to the Tokyo metropolitan government, which oversees JT Foods Co., the firm that imported and distributed the frozen food and gyoza involved in the 10 poisoning cases. The metropolitan government considered holding a press conference over the suspected case, but a blood test showed it was not organophosphate poisoning.

By Feb. 2, three days after the initial news report, 946 people complained of health problems, with more than 2,000 having reported problems by Tuesday.

More than 5,000 people have now consulted with a health professional or inquired about Chinese frozen products.

Some of those who saw doctors were admitted to hospitals over their health problems, though local public health centers in each case found patients were actually suffering from gastroenteritis or an existing condition, rather than food poisoning.

In Aomori Prefecture, a co-op that sold and recalled products, including the gyoza brand involved in the original case, called 9,220 households that had purchased the product and asked if any members of their family had become ill after eating Chinese frozen food.

Many respondents reported examples of food poisoning, leading the prefectural government to report 168 suspected cases to the health ministry.

However, when co-op employees visited these households, many people offered additional information suggesting they may already have had some sort of existing health problem.

Shinji Koike, an official at the co-op, said, “We may have worried people, but we feel relieved now.”

According to Toyama University Prof. Hiroshi Okudera, who treated victims in the 1994 sarin nerve gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, victims of organophosphate poisoning suffer contraction of the pupils (miosis), dizziness and vomiting.

“Unless you check for miosis, it’s hard to tell [organophosphate poisoning] from gastroenteritis,” he said. “I’m sure there were people who felt sick but decided not to go see the doctor. Some of them might have suffered mild poisoning.”

Susumu Oda, a professor at Tezukayamagakuin University who specializes in psychiatry, said, “As concerns over Chinese-made food have been growing for some time, and with the reports of food poisoning, there may have been some cases of autosuggestion, where people thought they had been poisoned [but hadn’t].”

Source:  http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080211TDY02305.htm