Abstract
Minamata disease is unique in its mechanism of outbreak. Organic mercury discharged with the wastewater from an industrial plant polluted the environment, which in turn contaminated fish and shellfish. People who ingested these marine products then became poisoned. Such widespread methyl mercury (MeHg) poisoning was the first occurrence in the history of mankind. The incident was instructive in the following sense. The seas, rivers, and atmosphere had long been regarded as places where people could throw away and dump wastes without a second thought. However, it was demonstrated that a certain substance in the environment would accumulate through the food chain and finally cause people to suffer from its toxicity. Not only persons who ingested the contaminated food were affected; embryos in the uterus suffered even more severe damages. It also became apparent that once the environment was polluted, restoring it to an acceptable state was almost impossible.
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© 1982 Plenum Press, New York
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Harada, M. (1982). Minamata Disease. In: Jelliffe, E.F.P., Jelliffe, D.B. (eds) Adverse Effects of Foods. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3359-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3359-3_13
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