TOKYO (CNN) — A metropolis in Japan is on excessive alert for a cat that fell right into a tank of hazardous chemical compounds earlier than disappearing into the evening.
Officials in Fukuyama, Hiroshima prefecture, stated they’ve stepped up patrols and warned residents to not strategy the animal, which was final seen in safety footage leaving a plating manufacturing unit on Sunday.
A path of pawprints found by a employee on Monday led to a 3-meter-deep vat of hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical that may induce rashes and irritation if touched or inhaled, officers stated.
Neighborhood searches had but to seek out the cat, and it stays unclear whether or not the animal is alive, a Fukuyama City Hall official stated.
Akihiro Kobayashi, supervisor of the Nomura Mekki Fukuyama manufacturing unit, stated a sheet protecting the chemical vat was discovered partially torn when workers returned to work after the weekend.
Workers have since been looking out for the cat, he stated.
Factory workers usually put on protecting clothes, and no well being points have been reported among the many employees, Kobayashi added.
Hexavalent chromium, or Chromium-6, is probably greatest generally known as the carcinogenic chemical featured within the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich,” starring Julia Roberts.
The dramatization, based mostly on a real-life authorized case, focuses on the titular activist’s combat towards a utility firm accused of polluting the water in a rural California group, inflicting elevated most cancers ranges and dying amongst its residents.
The substance “is harmful to the eyes, skin, and respiratory system,” in line with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Workers may be harmed from exposure to hexavalent chromium,” the CDC says on its web site. “The level of exposure depends upon the dose, duration and work being done.”
Experts solid doubt on whether or not the cat might survive for lengthy after coming into contact with the substance.
“Even if the fur would protect the skin from immediately getting large burns, cats clean their fur by licking it, moving the corrosive solution into the mouth,” stated Linda Schenk, a researcher specializing in chemical danger evaluation on the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
“My guess is that the cat, unfortunately, is dead or will be dying shortly from the chemical burns.”
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