On October 31 of the same year, Shimotsuke Shinbun (newspaper) reported that trees in Ashio area had been dying since about the previous year; and those two articles are considered to have been the first reports linking the Ashio copper mine and the pollution.
同年10月31日、下野新聞が前年ごろから足尾の木が枯れ始めていることを報じ、これら2つが足尾銅山と公害を結びつける最初期の報道と考えられる。