20000317

Japan asked

to clean up

incinerator

at US base

ATSUGI, (Japan): US Defence Secretary William Cohen on Thursday demanded action by Japan to clean up an incinerator that has been spilling poisonous fumes over a US naval air station here.

"It's clear it cannot continue in this fashion," he told reporters. "Action has to be taken."

Cohen watched a thick plume of white smoke billow out of the smokestacks at the Shinkampo incinerator across a fence next to the Atsugi Naval Air Facility, southeast of Tokyo.

"It's clear that status quo cannot be maintained. We have to have action taken".

"We have talked about this for the past three years," said Cohen, who arrived on Wednesday on a three-day visit. "It's clear we cannot have the kind of health hazard that people are exposed to".

US navy officials told Cohen that US-Japan joint monitoring efforts had detected the highest level of cancer-causing chemical compound dioxin ever recorded in Japan being emitted from the incinerator.

Cohen said he would try later in the day to discuss the problem with Japanese defence chief Tsotumo Kawara.

A senior US official said on Wednesday that Japan had agreed to foot the bill for the expensive clean up of the incinerator.

The United States has been complaining about the health risks to US navy personnel and their families from the incinerator for more than a decade without action by Japanese authorities.

Since 1988, US navy tests have detected dangerous levels of 38 pollutants, including cancer-causing dioxin, benzene, arsenic, lead, tetracholoethylene and formaldehyde, in emissions from the incinerator's smokestacks.

Winds often carry the fumes on a path across a base daycare center and an apartment building housing US navy personnel and their families, according to US officials.ÑAFP