deyalah+minamata

MINAMATA On April 21, 1956, a five year old girl was examined at the Chisso Corporation’s factory hospital in Minamata, a town on the west coast of the southern island of Kyushu. The physicians were shocked by her symptoms. Two days later her younger sister also began to exhibit the same symptoms she was also hospitalized. The girls’ mother informed the doctors that their neighbour’s daughter was experiencing the same symptoms. After a house to house investigation 8 more patients were discovered and hospitalised. On May 1, the hospital director reported to the local public health office the discovery of epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system, marking the official discovery on the Minamata disease. Minamata is a disease caused by a neurological syndrome caused by a severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include: · Ataxia · Numbness in hands and feet · General muscle weakness · Narrowing fields of vision · Damage to hearing and speech In extreme cases: · Insanity · Paralysis · Coma and death The Minamata disease was discovered in Minamata city in Kumamoto, Japan 1956. It was caused by the release of methyl mercury in the industrial wastewater from the Chisso Corporation’s chemical factory. This is a highly toxic chemical, bioaccumilated in fish. Inland the Shiranui Sea which was eaten by the local population related to the mercury poisoning, while cat, dogs, pigs and human deaths continued in the next 30 years. As of march 2001 2,265 victims had been recognised (1,784 of who have died) and over a 10,000 had received financial compensation from chisso. Chisso paid $86 million in compensation. The government and the company did little to prevent the pollution. Did you know? The victim’s bones became so weak and so small they were not allowed to put a blanket on them because there bones will snap. By: Deyalah Abdou