not a product of arsenic poisoning. Instead, they insisted that they were due to some previous illness. The outcome of this was that parents were forced to accept their babies’ misfortune as if it was some kind of natural disaster and take responsibility for ongoing treatment. The committee intentionally tricked the public into believing that the aftereffects were the result of an unfortunate natural disaster rather than a perpetrated crime. In April 1974, the Hikari Foundation was established in order to help the Morinaga poisoning victims. By the end of March 1983, there were 13,396 victims of the Morinaga milk poisonings, and 6,389 of these were in communication with the Hikari Foundation. The work of the Foundation centred mostly on the development of the victims' independence as well as on creating social conditions for that development. The members of the Foundation were mostly parents that had been involved with the protection association. See also 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning 1900 English beer poisoning Toxic oil syndrome 1985 diethylene glycol wine scandal 2008 Chinese milk poisoning References 1955 in Japan 1955 health disasters Health disasters in Japan Mass poisoning Milk Scandals in Japan Arsenic poisoning incidents