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Tragedy at Minamata Bay
| Article
# : |
23089 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 2003 |
282 Words |
| Author
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Joseph Orlins
Joseph Orlins, professor of civil engineering at Rowan
University in Glassboro, New Jersey, specializes in water
resources and environmental engineering. Anne Wehrly is an
attorney and freelance writer. |
The Chisso chemical factory, located on the Japanese island of Kyushu, is believed to have discharged between 70 and 150 tons of methylmercury (an organic form of mercury) into Minamata Bay between 1932 and 1968. The factory, a dominant presence in the region, used the chemical to manufacture acetic acid and vinyl chloride.
Methylmercury is easily absorbed upon ingestion, causing widespread damage to the central nervous system. Symptoms include numbing and unsteadiness of extremities, failure of muscular coordination, and impairment of speech, hearing, and vision. Exposure to high levels of the substance can be fatal. In addition, the effects are magnified for infants exposed to methylmercury through their mo, both before birth and while nursing.
In the 1960s and '70s, it was revealed that thousands of Minamata Bay residents had been exposed to methylmercury. The chemical had been taken up from the bay's waters by its fish and then made its way into the birds, cats, and people who ate the fish. Consequently, methylmercury poisoning came to be called Minamata disease.
Remediation, which took as long as 14 years, involved removing the mercury-filled sediments and containing them on reclaimed land in Minamata Bay. Fish in the bay had such high levels of methylmercury that they had to be prevented from leaving the bay by a huge net, which was in place from 1974 to 1997.
Mercury poisoning has recently appeared in the Amazon basin, where deforestation has led to uncontrolled runoff of natural accumulations of mercury from the soil into rivers and streams. In
... (1997 of 1809 Characters)
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