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 facility 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 facility, stated a sheet masking the chemical vat was discovered partially torn when staff returned to work after the weekend.
Workers have since been looking out for the cat, he stated.
Factory staff usually put on protecting clothes and no well being points have been reported among the many workers, Kobayashi added.
Hexavalent chromium, or Chromium-6, is maybe finest often called 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 battle in opposition to 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 dangerous to the eyes, pores and skin, and respiratory system,” in response to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Workers could also be harmed from publicity to hexavalent chromium,” the CDC says on its web site. “The degree of publicity relies upon upon the dose, period, and work being executed.”
Experts forged doubt on whether or not the cat may survive for lengthy after coming into contact with the substance.
“Even if the fur would defend the pores and skin from instantly getting giant burns, cats clear their fur by licking it, transferring the corrosive resolution 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 sadly is lifeless or will likely be dying shortly, from the chemical burns.”
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