Cartoon puts 120 children in hospital By Juliet Hindell in Tokyo

ABOUT 120 children were treated in hospital yesterday for conditions similar to those of epilepsy after a television cartoon triggered convulsions and other ill effects.

The mass outbreak in more than 700 children across Japan caused panic among parents. The television company has started an investigation. The Pocket Monsters cartoon was inspired by a Nintendo computer game of the same name. Although it is frequently violent, most Japanese parents had regarded it as suitable for children.

The latest episode, broadcast on Tuesday evening, included a scene where the screen was filled by a bright red explosion accompanied by strobe lights and followed by a white flash. The culmination showed the main character's eyes flashing red.

The sequence lasted only five seconds but it provoked fits, vomiting, eye irritation and breathing difficulties. More children were afflicted later in the evening when some news programmes replayed the scene during their reports on it.

A victim said: "I was lying down watching Pocket Monsters and the next thing I remember is being rushed to hospital in an ambulance." Most of the casualties were discharged almost immediately but about 120 were still in hospital 24 hours after the broadcast. A five-year-old girl is said to be in a serious condition.

Dr Tsuyoshi Akiyama, an epilepsy expert at a Tokyo hospital said: "What is unique about this incident is that so many children were affected at the same time."

TV Tokyo has asked outside experts, including doctors and psychologists, to investigate. It intends to cancel next week's episode if the cause of the mass convulsions is still unclear. Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is also holding an inquiry.

Dr Akiyama said: "The flickering lights and the intense colours could bring on epileptic attacks. The producers of the programme should use more moderate effects."

Parents are advised to keep children well back from the screen and provide an overhead light. Large screens, popular in Japan, may also be part of the problem.

Britain has had similar cases. In 1993, Jasminder Bassi, 14, died after playing Nintendo's Super Mario game for an hour. Nintendo's Pocket Monster computer game is in black and white only. More than seven million have been sold, making it the best seller.

Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent, writes: British programmes and video games are tightly regulated to ensure that they do not trigger fits in the 17,000 people believed to suffer from photo-sensitive epilepsy. In February, the Independent Television Commission banned two advertisements, for Boots lipstick and Marmite cubes, because they had a potential risk.

ITC guidelines advise that lights or images flickering above a set frequency should be avoided, images should not dominate the screen and repetitive psychedelic patterns should be avoided.

A Government-backed study of video games said that flashing lights would cause the first epileptic fit for 150 Britons a year - most aged between seven and 19 - but this was no more than those caused by television.

27 November 1996: Advert withdrawn for causing epileptic fit 24 September 1996: Japan's art of darkness