Japanese city on alert after cat falls into vat of toxic chemicals, escapes

A Japanese city is on the lookout for a cat covered in toxic chemicals.

Officials in Fukuyama have warned the public to stay away from the feline, which reportedly wandered into a metal plating factory and fell into a tank filled with hexavalent chromium. 

According to Japanese news outlet Asahi Shimbun, an employee at the Nomura Plating Fukuyama Factory on Monday discovered a trail of yellowish-brown footprints leading away from the vat. Security camera footage shows a cat headed out of the factory on the night before and leaving the trail behind.

A sheet had been placed over the 11-foot tall tank, but part of it had turned over, Asahi Shimbun reported. At the time, the tank was filled to approximately 70% capacity with plating solution. 

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Hexavalent chromium is a strongly acidic and carcinogenic chemical that is commonly used in electroplating, stainless steel production, leather tanning, textile manufacturing and wood preservation. Exposure to the compound has been shown to cause lung cancer in humans when inhaled, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Other adverse health effects from hexavalent chromium exposure includes nasal and sinus cancers, kidney and liver damage, nasal and skin irritation and ulceration and eye irritation and damage.

Hexavalent chromium was made infamous in the 2000 biopic "Erin Brokovich," which starred Julia Roberts as the titular character, a legal assistant who brings down a utility company accused of polluting the water supply in Hinkley, California. 

Employees at the factory are required to wear masks and use rubber gloves when working with the dangerous chemical, Asahi Shimbun reported. 

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"We immediately alerted police, the Fukuyama city and neighbors near our factory," a representative for Nomura Plating told AFP. 

"The incident woke us up to the need to take measures to prevent small animals like cats from sneaking in, which is something we had never anticipated before," he said.

Environmental authorities in Fukuyama said the animal is likely dead but warned residents to avoid any abnormal-looking cats. "Please do not touch it and contact the city or police," officials said, according to Japanese media.

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Social media users expressed outrage at the incident and accused the factory of failing to take appropriate precautions to prevent the cat from harm, the South China Morning Post reported. 

One message posted on the NTV News website demanded an apology from the company, compensation for the owner of the cat and called for the government to revoke Nomura Plating's license to handle dangerous chemicals, according to the outlet.

Others noted the difficulty of keeping a cat from wondering places it should not go and urged pet owners to be careful to keep their animals indoors.

One poster joked, "It may have evolved into a superalloy cat."