Minamata Story

In 1908, Shin Nippon Chisso built a factory in Minamata, a small fishing village in Kumamoto, Kyushu The company manufactured nitrogenous fertilizers, and soon became the major industry in Minamata By the mid 1950s, Shin Nippon Chisso had become the industry leader in its field In 1954, the sanitation office of Minamata City began receiving reports of an unknown epilepsy-like affliction, which has since become known as the minamata disease Since the course of the disease had not been identified, patients were isolated to prevent the spread of the disease Minamata disease is a neurological condition mercury poisons the central nervous system, damages the sense of balance and motor skills, which leads to increasingly intense body convulsions and ultimately, death In 1957, the Minamata Disease Research Group of Kumamoto University announced that Minamata Disease is a toxic disorder of the central nervous system caused by certain organic mercury compound transmitted through the intact of seafoods They isolated organic mercury as the sole cause through a series of experiments on cats In the same year extremely toxic levels of organic mercury were detected in the human patients The report submitted to the Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that the underlying cause was organic mercury in seafood and the waste water discharged from the factory was suspected Affected patients continued to be found until 1960 A rash of baby were born with brain damage and extreme physical disabilities The Governor of Kumamoto requested a voluntary of ban on captures of sea foods from the bay