8BMinimata

1 : What was the disaster? (a)When was it? (b) Where was it? (c) By Courtney The Minamata disease was caused by mercury poisoning. Mercury in concentrated forms when ingested can cause severe damage to the central neural system. When ingested, mercury does not do much damage unless it is concentrated or you ingest it over a long period of time. The Minamata disease is caused by severe mercury poisoning and often results in death. Some symptoms of this horrible disease are: loss of senses, numbness in fingers and toes which spreads to arms and legs, splitting headaches and tunnel vision. The disease can be passed onto unborn children even if the mercury had been ingested by the mother years before. Minamata is not contagious as originally thought. The disease can be caught by anyone: man, woman, old, young, rich or poor. The disease can take a month or two to cause comas and a week to cause death. The first case of Minamata was recorded in 1956(b) in Minamata, Japan(c). Minamata is a fishing village and it is closely located to the ocean. 2265 victims suffered the disease and 1784 died. This case was caused by the Chisso chemical factory dumping an approx 27 tonnes of mercury into Minamata’s drinking supply. The mercury was directly drunk by the people of Minamata. The people also bathed in the tainted water. But this was not the main cause of the deaths. In a less indirect way the fish absorbed the mercury and the people ate the fish. If the townsfolk ate even a little bit of fish each day they would catch the disease eventually. It was very hard for people not to eat fish as Minamata relied on the fish as a main supply of food. Eventually Chisso was discovered for its horrid crimes against humanity and the factory had to pay a settlement to every victim. 10 000 people claimed on this settlement. Many people who never even lived in Minamata or the surrounding area are still affected. Woman who ate contaminated fish or drank the water gave birth to retarded or disabled children. These children often had gnarled limbs and were deaf or blind.

Question 2: What chemicals were involved and why are they bad for the environment and people? What were the chemicals being used for? By Courtney Methyl mercury is a shorthand form for monomethylmercury. It is composed of a methyl group added to a mercury atom. Methyl Mercury’s formula is H3C-Hg3X¯. Methyl mercury is dangerous because it damages human and animal neural systems. Mercury alone is very dangerous to life but the acute form of methyl mercury that flowed through Minamata Bay had a devastating effect on the surrounding environment. Over one thousand people died and the effects of this disaster are still being felt strongly. The methyl mercury was created by Chisso Corporation. The mercury was being used as a catalyst in experiments. These experiments were being done to make acetaldehyde and fertilizers. When the experiments were complete there was a large amount of organic and methyl mercury left. The mercury was dumped into the factories waste water. The waste water fed through to the village of Minamata’s drinking supply which was Minamata Bay. People didn’t know about Minamata or the horrific affects it had on people or animals. The minamata disaster could have been stopped but Chisso refused to stop producing the acetaldehyde even when they knew about the damages to people and the bay. 

3. Describe the impact the disaster had on the environment and people. By Audry

The impact the disaster had on the people and environment was severe, the main food source of the people of Minamata was fish but after the Chisso factory dumped heaps of mercury waste in the bay people started getting sick the symptoms were numbness occurred in their limbs and lips, their speech became slurred, and their vision became impaired. Some people had serious brain damage, while others lapsed into unconsciousness or suffered from involuntary movements. Furthermore, some victims were thought to be crazy when they began to uncontrollably shout. The bay was covered in sludge and it was heard that the Chisso factory was paying fishermen for damaging there fishing environment. Many animals were also getting sick, cats were supposedly “suiciding” and birds were falling out of the sky. Dr. Hajime Hosokawa did some research and found out that the disease was leading towards the fish, after he blamed the Chisso factory they denied it. The Chisso factory then started dumping it in the Minamata river to try to demolish there accusations. The sickness got more severe because the Minamata River flows past the town Hachimon, and into the Shiranui Sea and these people too started getting these strange symptoms. Finally, in July 1959, researchers from Kumamoto University concluded that organic mercury was the cause of the "Minamata Disease" which linked to the Chisso factory, unfortunately were restricted for doing any more research, but in the same year the fishermen protested, most of the fishermen and victims were paid off. Eventually in 1968 they stopped dumping and were taken to court in 1969 for all the damage, the only reason they stopped dumping was because mercury based products became outdated.

<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">4.When and how did it happen? <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">Minamata disease got released because of the discharge of methyl mercury in the manufacturing wastewater from the Chisso Corporation's chemical factory, which continued dumping methyl mercury from 1932 to 1968. They dumped methyl mercury into the into the sewage plant, knowing the effect it would have on humans. It ended up in the Yatsushiro Sea.The Minamata disease was discovered on May 1956, when two girls who were sisters, aged 5 and 2, living in Minamata City were the first patients. It was first noted as a mystery. Later the illness they had was named Minamata disease. <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">Who or what caused the disaster? <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">This disaster was caused by Chisso co-operations, who were dumping methyl mercury into waste waters. It flowed into Yatsushiro Sea, and destroyed the environment it infected the sea animals which people ate, it was a mystery to doctors to see people die from food poisoning then they found out it was the very deadly Minamata disease. The symptoms are : · <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">Disturbances in fingers and in toes. · <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt;">Reduced visual field · <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">Walking problems · <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">Impaired speech · <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">Hearing problems · <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">Muscle weakness · <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">Tremors · <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">Abnormal eye movement <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">Abnormal eye movement <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">These are symptoms of Minamata disease. <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">Why did it happen? <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">Minamata disease happened because of the company dumping methyl mercury into the wastewaters which were as bad as dumping it into the main sea, Chisso co-operations knew that the effect of methyl mercury would harm life and destroy the environment. It was not accidental because they knew what would happen all along. The reason why it occurred is because of the chemicals combination. The reaction that caused people to die. By Aragsan Youssouf

= 5. What was done at the time to fix this problem? Was this the best solution to the problem? 6. What measures have been put in place to stop it happening in the future? = <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">** Minamata disease was first discovered in Japan late May 1956. The government decided to install Waste Water Treatment facilities but had no effect on the level of Mercury being released into the Shiranui Sea. **** The government and company did little to prevent the pollution from spreading even more. The court also ordered Chisso to pay $2.18 million in damages to the plaintiffs. <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">This wasn’t probably the best solution to the problem; the court should have done something bigger to save all those lost innocent lives. On October 16, 2004, the best Court of Japan ordered the government to pay 71.5 million yen ($703,000) in damages to the Minamata disease victims. The Environment Minister said an apology to the plaintiffs. After 22 years, the plaintiffs achieved their goal of making those in charge for Japan's worst case of industrial pollution pay for their slackness. No amount of money can ever make up for the lives <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">lost in the Minamata disease. The Chisso Corporation began to make deals with the victims of the "Minamata Disease". People who were worried and legally ignorant signed contracts which stated that Chisso Corporation would pay them for their misfortunes, but would accept no responsibility. In fact, there was even a clause which read, "If Chisso Corporation was later proven guilty, and the company would not be liable for further compensation". <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">By Fatima Assaad ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;"> Bibliography: [] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%;">