Minimata Disease and The Photography of W Eugene Smith

1. Minimata Disease and The Photography of W Eugene Smith Martin Donohoe http://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org

2. Outline • Introduction • Mercury and Methylmercury as pollutants • Minimata Disease • W Eugene Smith – bio and photos

3. Mercury • Syphilis Treatment - 15th Century onward - abandoned 1940 for penicillin • Recognized as cause of disease in 19th Century (Hunter-Russell Syndrome) - chemists, hatters

4. Mercury • Released into air by coal combustion, industrial processes, mining, and waste disposal • 4500 tons/yr • Travels throughout atmosphere and settles in oceans and waterways

5. Gold MiningGold = Cyanide + Mercury • Mercury used to capture gold particles as an amalgam • Gold leached from ore using cyanide • Cyanide paralyzes cellular respiration • At least 18 tons of mine waste created to obtain the gold for a single 3 oz., 18k ring

6. Gold Mining and Mercury • Contaminated groundwater often sits in large toxic lakes held in place by tenuous dams • Release of cyanide and mercury into local waterways kills fish, harms fish-eating animals, and poisons drinking water

7. Mercury • Bacteria convert it to toxic methylmercury (MeHg) • Travels up food chain via fish • Long biological half-life - 1-3 years in humans • Regulation inadequate • Allows “cap and trade”

8. Mercury • 16% of women of childbearing age exceed the EPA’s “safe” mercury level • Freshwater fish mercury levels too high for pregnant women to eat in 43 states • Mercury dental amalgams pose health risks to pregnant women, unborn babies, and children (FDA Black Box Warning added 2009)

9. Minamata Bay • Southern Japan • Shiranui Sea • Fishing village • Villagers: fisherman/Chisso Corporation employees and their families

12. Chisso Corporation • Established 1918 • Produced acetaldehyde for plastics, drugs, perfumes, photography • Mercury (Hg) catalyst • Byproduct = methylmercury, dumped into bay (150 tons over 4 decades) • Dumped over 60 deadly poisons, including vinyl chloride (cause of liver cancer)

14. Chronology of Chisso's Environmental Pollution • 1925 - local fishing cooperative compensated for decreased catch • 1950s - bizarre behavioral changes observed in birds, marine fish, land vertebrates; oysters vanish • 1950s / 1960s - reports in Japanese medical journals about human cases

15. Chronology of Chisso's Environmental Pollution • 1956 - cause (MeHg) of Minamata Disease elucidated • 1958-60 - reports in English medical journals • 1959-69 - Dr. Hosokawa's experiments • Cat #400 • Other studies • 1959 cyclator added • Removed Hg, but not MeHg

17. Chronology of Chisso's Environmental Pollution • 1965 - fishing banned in Minamata Bay after similar events noted in Niigata, Japan • 1968 - all acetaldehyde-producing plants have ceased operating • 1970 - Japan Water Pollution Control Act • Allowed no detectable Hg or MeHg in waste water

18. Chronology of Chisso's Environmental Pollution • 1997 – Minimata Bay declared free of mercury • 2004 – Japanese Supreme Court rules government shares responsibility for epidemic (government slow to react, cut off research funding in 1962)

19. Minimata Disease • 2578 official cases in Minamata Bay (almost 1800 dead); many unofficial cases; 10,000 received financial compensation • Social stigma / Poor health care

20. Mercury: S/S, Dx, and Rx • S/S: neuropsychiatric symptoms, excessive salivation/inflammation of gums, rash, nephropathy • Linked to autism • Dx: mercury levels in air, blood, urine (>100 mcg/l in blood and/or urine = toxic) • Rx: chelation with BAL, penicillamine, DMPS, DMSA

21. Minimata Disease:Signs and Symptoms • Acute / Chronic Poisoning: • numbness, slurred speech, ataxia, unsteady gait, deafness, poor vision, dysphagia, hypersalivation, confusion, drowsiness/stupor to irritability/restlessness; chronic liver disease, liver cancer, hypertension • death within a few months if severe • Rx EDTA – only partially effective 

22. Minimata Disease:Signs and Symptoms • Congenital: high dose → infertility; medium dose → spontaneous abortions; low dose → congenital disease • S/S: poor physical growth, mental retardation, impaired speech/chewing/swallowing, muscle tone abnormalities, involuntary movements, constricted visual fields - EDTA not effective

27. Civil suit vs. Chisso (1969-73) • Plaintiffs awarded $66,000 for deceased victims, $59,000 - $66,000 for survivors • Precedent - Niigata suit versus Showa Denko • $3.4 million paid out the first night, $80 million paid out by 1975

30. Civil suit vs. Chisso (1969-73) • Dr. Hosokawa key witness (from deathbed) • Identity - company employee vs. impartial physician with obligation to patients • Loyalty - company vs. to public

32. Reasons for Delayed Recognition and Action • Science slow, unfunded/underfunded, corrupt • Dissemination of knowledge slow • Social stigma of disease, fear of contagion • Pressure from fisheries cooperative, Chisso employees

33. Reasons for Delayed Recognition and Action • Lack of local/world awareness of health effects of pollution • Strong government-business links in Japan, employee loyalty strong

34. Decreasing Causes and Limiting Consequences of Mercury Pollution • Phase out coal burning power plants • Hospitals phasing out mercury thermometers • Stop buying gold (e.g., wedding rings) • Make healthy seafood purchases • Screen and treat when appropriate

35. Minimata Disease Memorial

36. W Eugene Smith • Born 1918, Wichita, KS • Local news photographer at age 15 • Turned down scholarship to Notre Dame to study photography at NY Institute of Photography • Worked for Newsweek, then Life, then Magnum

37. W Eugene Smith • Married to Aileen Smith, photojournalist • Minimata: Final Assignment • Beaten by Chisso employees • Died 1978