A neurologic disorder caused by methyl mercury intoxication; first described in the inhabitants of Minamata Bay, Japan, resulting from

their eating fish contaminated with mercury industrial waste. Characterised by peripheral sensory loss, tremors, dysarthria, ataxia, and both hearing and visual loss. (05 Mar 2000)

IDENTIFICATION Over 3,000 victims have been recognized as having "Minamata Disease". It has taken some of these people over thirty years to receive compensation for this inconceivable event. In 1993, nearly forty years later, the Japanese courts were still resolving suitable compensation for the victims. Many people have lost their lives, suffered from physical deformities, or have had to live with the physical and emotional pain of "Minamata Disease". This suffering is all a result of the very wrongful and negligent acts of the Chisso Corporation who dumped mercury into the sea water and poisoned the people of Japan.

Located on the coast of the Yatsushiro Sea in southwestern Japan.

http://www.jnto.go.jp/tourism/img/map/86.gif

Chisso = nitrogen
Produced fertilizer

1907: Chisso Corp. builds a fertilizer plant in the Minamata. 1925: plant begins dumping untreated wastewater into Minamata Bay
Kills fish Fisherman Payoffs

http://www.japanfocus.org/images/592-3.jpg

1932: Chisso plant begins to produce acetaldehyde to be used in the production of plastic, perfume and drugs.
Acetaldehyde is

made from acetylene and water with a mercury catalyst.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~tobin/Smith2.jpg

Early 1950s:
Dead fish wash

ashore Crows fall out of sky Suicidal dancing cats

Mercury moves up the food chain.

http://flickr.com/photos/tropicalrips/127535537/

Behaviors witnessed:
in hands Violent tremors Swaggered walk Insanity

Loss of motor control

Cat-dancing disease Nobody knew the cause of the epidemic.

ridicule

Many hid for fear of

http://www.hamline.edu/personal/amurphy01/es110/eswebsite/Proj ectsSpring03/ebarker/Minamata%20Web%20Page.htm

1956: Researchers at Chisso Corp. Hospital experiment on cats with wastewater from the Chisso plant.
They warn Chisso corp.

Chisso corp. redirects the flow of wastewater to avoid being caught.

A larger geographical

area contaminated. Children born with horrifying deformities.

http://www.nimd.go.jp/archives/english/tenji/a_corner/image/hasseimap.gif

30-70 tons of methyl mercury was dumped into the Bay 10,000 people affected by Minamata disease.
3,000 died
http://www.physorg.com/news110359851.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Methylmercury exposure in humans is from consumption of fish, marine mammals, and crustaceans 95% of fish-derived methylmercury is absorbed into the gastrointestinal tract and distributed throughout the body Highest in concentration in hair

www.mercury.utah.gov/images/health_effects.jpg

characteristic signs and symptoms in Minamata disease. 1. Gait disturbance, loss of balance (ataxia), speech disturbance (Dysarthria) 2. Sight disturbance of peripheral areas in the visual fields (constriction of visual fields) 3. Stereo anesthesia (Disturbance of sensation) 4. Muscle weakness, muscle cramp (disturbance of movement) 5. Hardness of hearing (hearing disturbance) 6. Disturbance of sense of pain, touch or temperature (Disturbance of sensation)

National institute of Minamata Disease Archives

Mild
Ataxia Muscle weakness Narrowed field of

vision Hearing and speech damage

Severe cases cause

Insanity Paralysis Coma Death

W. Eugene Smith Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath Minamata, 1972

A significant effect of Minamata is the onset of symptoms similar to those of cerebral palsy Fetal Minamata Disease
A pregnant mother ingests toxic fish and the methylmercury concetrates inside the placenta. Harms the fetus while the mother is relatively unaffected

http://picasaweb.google.com/jazzyv0504/SA KURA#5065603192708172658

Mercury (Hg) is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. It melts at -38.9oC and boils at 356.6oC. Mercury conducts electricity, expands uniformly with temperature and easily forms alloys with other metals (called amalgams).

For these reasons, it is used

in many products found in homes and schools.

Mercury exists in three oxidation states:

Mercurous and mercuric form numerous inorganic and organic chemical compounds.
Organic forms of

Hg0 (elemental mercury). Hg22+ (mercurous). Hg2+ (mercuric).

mercury, especially methyl mercury, CH3Hg(II)X, where X is a ligand (typically Cl- or OH-) are the most toxic forms.

We use its unique properties to conduct electricity, measure temperature and pressure, act as a biocide, preservative and disinfectant and catalyze reactions.
It is the use of mercury in catalysis that contributed

to the events in Minamata.

Other uses include batteries, pesticides, fungicides, dyes and pigments, and the scientific apparati.

Upwards of 70% of the mercury in the environment comes from anthropogenic sources, including: Metal processing, waste incineration, and coalpowered plants. Natural sources include volcanoes, natural mercury deposits, and volatilization from the ocean. Estimates are that human sources have nearly doubled or tripled the amount of mercury in the atmosphere.

Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to industrial crises. However, industrial accidents such as Bhopal are not just an Indian or even a Third World problem but are industrial disasters waiting to happen , whether they are in the form of "mini-Bhopals", smaller industrial accidents that occur with disturbing frequency in chemical plants in both developed and developing countries, and "slow-motion Bhopals", unseen chronic poisoning from industrial pollution that causes irreversible pain, suffering, and death (Weir, pp. xi-xii). These are the key issues we face in a world where toxins are used and developed without fully knowing the harm that can come from their use or abuse.

Exposure to MIC has resulted in damage to the eyes and lungs and has caused respiratory ailments such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, gastrointestinal problems like hyperacidity and chronic gastritis, ophthalmic problems like chronic conjunctivitis and early cataracts, vision problems, neurological disorders such as memory and motor skills, psychiatric problems of various types including varying grades of anxiety and depression, musculoskeletal problems and gynecological problems among the victims. It is estimated that children born in Bhopal after the disaster face twice the risk of dying as do children elsewhere, partly because parents cannot care for them adequately. Surprisingly enough, despite the serious health problems and the deaths that have occurred, Union Carbide claims that the MIC is merely a "mild throat and ear irritant" (Lancet, "Round..." p.952).

According to many, Bhopal is the site of the greatest industrial disaster in history. On the night of December 23, 1984, a dangerous chemical reaction occurred in the Union Carbide factory when a large amount of water got into the MIC storage tank # 610. The leak was first detected by workers about 11:30 p.m. when their eyes began to tear and burn. They informed their supervisor who failed to take action until it was too late. In that time, a large amount, about 40 tons of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC), poured out of the tank for nearly two hours and escaped into the air, spreading within eight kilometers downwind, over the city of nearly 900,000. Thousands of people were killed (estimates ranging as high as 4,000) in their sleep or as they fled in terror, and hundreds of thousands remain injured or affected (estimates range as high as 400,000) to this day. The most seriously affected areas were the densely populated shanty towns immediately surrounding the plant -- Jayaprakash Nagar, Kazi Camp, Chola Kenchi, and the Railway Colony. The victims were almost entirely the poorest members of the population.

In the early morning of April 26, 1986, workers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located twenty miles north of Chernobyl, Ukraine, U.S.S.R., began shutting down safety and cooling systems in order to run a turbine experiment to test an emergency turbine shutdown scenario. The shutdown of these systems inadvertently caused the reactor of the plant to overheat, resulting in an explosion which tore the roof completely off of the plant's reactor four. The explosion ignited fires in various parts of the plant and sent a huge radioactive cloud into the atmosphere. This radioactive cloud drifted over much of Europe, dumping large amounts of radioactive nuclides onto the Ukraine and most European countries. The Chernobyl explosion quickly became the worst nuclear power accident in history. The immediate effect of the blast was 31 dead from radiation poisoning, with a still unknown number of deaths that may be caused by long-term radiation sickness. The accident also caused unquantifiable economic losses for the U.S.S.R. and Europe, and weakened both the Soviet government and the global nuclear power industry.

Although reports about a possible Russian nuclear disas began to trickle out in Western newspapers, the Russians denied that any such explosion occurred. However, the Soviets had quickly sprung into action immediately following the explosio Soviet firefighters using military helicopters finally managed to extinguish the blaze in reactor four by dumping between 5,00 and 6,000 tons of boron, lead and other materials onto the reacto core. Twelve days after the accident, the final fire was extinguished. In addition to fighting the blaze, the Russians began evacuating villages within close proximity to Chernob within 36 hours after the blast, including the entire town of Pripyat, the city closest to the Chernobyl plant. According to Zhores Medvedev, the total number of towns and villages evacuated was 186 (2 towns and 184 villages), some as far away as 80km west, north and north-west of the reactor site.

PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) merupakan perusahaan afiliasi dari Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.. PTFI menambang, memproses dan melakukan eksplorasi terhadap bijih yang mengandung tembaga, emas dan perak. Beroperasi di daerah dataran tinggi di Kabupaten Mimika Provinsi Papua, Indonesia perak ke seluruh penjuru dunia.
Kompleks tambang di Grasberg merupakan salah satu penghasil tunggal tembaga dan emas terbesar di dunia, dan mengandung cadangan tembaga yang dapat diambil yang terbesar di dunia, selain cadangan tunggal emas terbesar di dunia. Grasberg berada di jantung suatu wilayah mineral yang sangat melimpah

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) merupakan perusahaan tambang internasional utama dengan kantor pusat di Phoenix, Arizona, Amerika Serikat. FCX mengelola beragam aset besar berusia panjang yang tersebar secara geografis di atas empat benua, dengan cadangan signifikan terbukti dan terkira dari tembaga, emas dan molybdenum. Mulai dari pegunungan khatulistiwa di Papua, Indonesia, hingga gurun-gurun di Barat Daya Amerika Serikat, gunung api megah di Peru, daerah tradisional penghasil tembaga di Chile dan Kongo

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. merupakan perusahaan publik di bidang tembaga yang terbesar di dunia, penghasil utama di dunia dari molybdenum logam yang digunakan pada campuran logam baja berkekuatan tinggi, produk kimia, dan produksi pelumas serta produsen besar emas. FCX menyelenggarakan kegiatan melalui beberapa anak perusahaan utama; PTFI, Freeport-McMoRan Corporation dan Atlantic Copper.