Probe set on rare disease in Cebu

CEBU CITY — A team of experts from the Occupational Safety and Health Standard Center at the University of the Philippines will inspect working conditions at the Cebu Mitsumi plant in Danao City.

This is the same team that went to Taiwan last year to check on a disease that broke out among Filipino workers at a factory there.

Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas said yesterday the team will check company operations and determine if the rare Stevens Johnson Syndrome that resulted in the hospitalization of one of its employees resulted from a failure to comply with health and safety standards.

Santo Tomas said the team will also visit 21-year-old Cheryl Gentapa who is now languishing with the disease at the Visayas Community Medical Center.

Santo Tomas said the team will examine the chemicals used by Mitsumi, a Japanese-owned electronics assembly firm, to find out if these caused the rare disease.

But Dr. Ely Belarmino, Gentapa’s attending physician, said the disease was not caused by any of the chemicals used by the firm but by the anti-inflammatory drugs she had taken prior to the infection.

"The disease is usually caused by anti-inflammatory agents such as antibiotics," Belarmino said.

He also said the disease is not fatal but would take at least one month before a patient could completely recover.

Belarmino said Gentapa is expected to be discharged from the hospital in the next two weeks because her recovery is very fast.

Danilo Deen, lawyer of Mitsumi, claims the case of Gentapa was the first encountered by the company and that it was most likely not caused by chemicals used at the plant.

But a dyla report said another Mitsumi worker contracted the disease last year but that it was not as severe as with Gentapa.

The same report said another former employee, pregnant at the time, gave birth to a still-born child allegedly because of exposure to strong chemicals used at the plant.

Because of the controversy, Lilia Estillore of the Department of Labor standards enforcements division, sent yesterday a team to inspect the plant.

But Estillore, when informed about the other cases, blamed the employees themselves for not complaining.

She said Mitsumi is subjected to a yearly inspection but inspectors had never heard about the problem.

Nevertheless, Santo Tomas promised to shut down the plant if it is found to have violated provisions of the Labor Code.

Mitsumi submitted its report on the incident to the labor department yesterday afternoon, including a list of chemicals it uses in its operations. — Freeman News Service