1 / 18

Minamata Disease

Minamata Disease. Markquita Watson 5/13/2014 Mrs.A Freeman. What is this Disease?.

ting
Download Presentation

Minamata Disease

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Minamata Disease Markquita Watson 5/13/2014 Mrs.A Freeman

  2. What is this Disease? • Minamata disease is a form of methyl mercury poisoning caused by eating large quantities of fish and shellfish polluted by methyl mercury in factory wastewater. It is not a contagious disease transmitted through air or food, and it is not inherited. • Minamata disease was officially discovered in 1956, and in 1968 the national government announced that it was a pollution disease caused by the Chisso Co., Ltd.

  3. How it Enter Your body? • The methyl mercury that enters the body mainly attacks the central nervous system, including the brain., and causes various symptoms including numbness and unsteadiness in the legs and hands, tiredness, ringing in the ears, narrowing of the field of vision, loss of hearing, slurred speech, and awkward movements. Some early severe victims of Minamata disease went insane, became unconscious, and died within a month of the onset of the disease.

  4. What Happen? • Minamatadisease caused by Chisso, in 1964 Minamatadisease also broke out along the Agano River in Niigata prefecture, where the Showa Denko Corporation used the same production process. Elsewhere in the world, damage to health due to mercury pollution from factories has also been reported along the Songhua (Sungari) River in China, and in Canada. And in recent years rivers and lakes polluted by mercury in the Amazon and Tanzania have created serious health concerns.

  5. What Happen? • Chisso began as a hydroelectric power company in 1908, late in the Meiji period (1868-1912). It built a carbide factory which used this electricity, and before long began producing chemical fertilizers, becoming one of Japan’s major chemical companies.

  6. And More • As Chisso grew, so did Minamata. Its population increased, and Minamata became one of the leading industrial cities in Kumamoto prefecture. A former factory director served as mayor, and both Chisso’s influence on the region and the residents’ dependence on Chisso grew.

  7. And Then • Chisso produced acetic acid, vinyl chloride,andthe plasticizers that were necessary in their production. Chisso became one of the companies that made Japan’s rapid postwar economic growth possible. • 1968 the company continued to use inorganic mercury as a catalyst in producing acetaldehyde, which was used to produce acetic acid and vinyl chloride. Methyl mercury,aby-product of the production process, was discharged virtually untreated into the sea until 1966.

  8. Damage Report • The sludge in Minamata Bay with a mercury content above 25 parts per million (ppm), was dealt with by Kumamoto prefecture by dredging and reclamation, at the huge cost of 48.5 billion yen over 14 years.

  9. Damage • 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.

  10. Lives Lost • 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.

  11. What was learned • Minamata disease shows us that we must not ignore the past, and the more we study and learn about it, the more it teaches us lessons about living, such as the value of the environment and health. • So that the tragedy of Minamata disease will never be repeated, we have prepared answers to some of the most common questions about Minamatadisease.

  12. What was learned • From this experience, the people of Minamata have learned the value of water and food, which are essential to life. They also learned that household and industria waste must not be allowed to destroy the environment.

  13. What we Learned • Minamata disease teaches us the importance of not destroying nature; of living with the awareness that nature gives us life; of considering food safety and the interconnectedness of people, rivers, and the sea; of reducing and recycling home and industrial waste; and of never turning our eyes away from local problems

  14. Environmental Concepts Chp.13

  15. Mercury Posioning Mercury occurs naturally in the environment and exists in several forms. These forms can be organized under three headings: metallic mercury (also known as elemental mercury), inorganic mercury, and organic mercury. Metallic mercury is a shiny, silver-white metal that is a liquid at room temperature.

  16. Can it Happen again? It is possible for you to be exposed to metallic mercury vapors from breathing contaminated air around hazardous waste sites, waste incinerators, or power plants that burn mercury-containing fuels (such as coal or other fossil fuels), but most outdoor air is not likely to contain levels that would be harmful. Exposure to mercury compounds at hazardous waste sites is much more likely to occur from handling contaminated soil (i.e., children playing in or eating contaminated surface soil), drinking well-water, or eating fish from contaminated waters near those sites. Not all hazardous sites contain mercury, and not all waste sites that do contain mercury have releases of mercury to the air, water, or surface soils.

  17. Yes It Can

  18. CITATION https://www.google.com/search?q=rivers+in+georgia+with+high+levels+of+mercury&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=45xzU6jVI_DLsAToooHQBA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=511&safe=active&ssui=on#q=dirty+dozen+rivers+in+georgia&safe=active&ssui=on&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgrc=oK2-BKW0xBB-DM%253A%3BiwcFlgOyhm0KTM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.garivers.org%252Fgawater%252FGraphics%252FDD2013.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.garivers.org%252Fgawater%252Fdirtydozen.htm%3B540%3B706 \ https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.garivers.org%2Fgawater%2Fdirtydozen.htm&ei=KZ9zU5ztCc2_sQSqxYDoCQ&usg=AFQjCNG0JnXIjK1t3kqBq7PWQLvEVl4XbA&bvm=bv.66699033,d.cWc aileenarchive.or.jp/minamata_en/aboutminamata/index.html www.soshisha.org/english/10tishiki_e/10chisiki_3_e.pdf www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.

More Related