Search results
Minamata disease is a poisoning disease that affects mainly the central nervous system and is caused by the consumption of large quantities of fish and shellfish living in Minamata Bay and its surroundings, the major causative agent being some sort of organic mercury compound.
Jul 10, 2023 · In July 1959, researchers from Kumamoto University discovered the source of the illness—high levels of mercury poisoning. They named the condition Minamata disease. Right away, a large petrochemical plant in Minamata, run by Chisso Corporation, was suspected as the source of the mercury.
Oct 30, 2021 · Masami Ogata is a survivor of Minamata Disease, a debilitating illness caused by industrial mercury poisoning, which originated in the Japanese town of the same name in the 1950s. As a UN...
In the late 1950s Minamata Bay, Japan became contaminated with mercury from a nearby factory manufacturing the chemical acetaldehyde (Chisso Corporation's chemical waste pipe). The mercury was biotransformed by bacteria in the water into methylmercury, or organic mercury, that bioaccumulated and biomagnified in the muscle of fish.
The first disease whose cause was recognized as industrial pollution of seawater, Minamata disease aroused worldwide concern and did much to stimulate the development of the environmental protection movement. Minamata Bay was determined to be mercury-free as of July 1997.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international environmental treaty that aims to protect human health and the environment from the harmful effects of mercury and its compounds. It addresses specific human activities that are contributing to large-scale mercury pollution.
Minamata Disease, which is a typical example of the pollution-related health damage in Japan, was first discovered in 1956, around Minamata Bay in Kumamoto Prefecture, and in 1965, in the Agano River basin in Niigata Prefecture.
May 24, 2024 · Minamata disease, Disease first identified in 1956 in Minamata, Japan. A fishing port, Minamata was also the home of Nippon Chisso Hiryo Co., a manufacturer of chemical fertilizer, carbide, and vinyl chloride. Methyl mercury discharged from the factory contaminated fish and shellfish, which in turn.
Dec 5, 2022 · Minamata disease refers to a tragic event where people in the coastal community of Minamata Bay, Japan, developed severe neurological disorders following exposure to methylmercury.
Oct 6, 2023 · But much of the world would not begin to take the problem of mercury pollution seriously until the slow-motion disaster that engulfed Minamata. From 1932 to 1968, a chemical factory in the coastal city discharged liquid containing high concentrations of methylmercury, a type of mercury, into a local bay.
