Morinaga Milk arsenic poisoning incident

[1] The incident occurred when arsenic was inadvertently added to dried milk via the use of an industrial grade monosodium phosphate additive.

[2][3] From June 1955, certain infants in western Japan came down with a strange sickness that was characterized by diarrhea or constipation, vomiting, a swollen abdomen, and a darkening of skin color.

[citation needed] According to William R. Cullen, Morinaga Milk showed little interest over studies of the surviving affected infants,[4] which resulted in some boycotting the company's products during the 1960s.

During the civil suit process, the committee selected to make a ruling against the Morinaga company decided that the aftereffects of the victims were not a product of arsenic poisoning.

[6] The committee intentionally tricked the public into believing that the aftereffects were the result of an unfortunate natural disaster rather than a perpetrated crime.