Water event
Minamata disease
Methylmercury discharged into Minamata Bay by a chemical plant accumulated in fish and shellfish, causing severe neurological disease across the fishing community that ate them.
Key facts
- Event type
- Industrial pollution
- Started
- 1956-05-01
- Ended
- 1968-12-31
Cause
The Chisso Corporation discharged methylmercury-containing wastewater from acetaldehyde production into the bay from 1932. Bioaccumulation concentrated it in the food chain by many orders of magnitude.
Impact
- Thousands officially certified as affected, with many more claims
- Severe neurological damage including ataxia, sensory loss and, in congenital cases, profound disability
- Destruction of the local fishing economy
Response
Discharge continued for twelve years after the disease was first identified. Official recognition of the cause came only in 1968.
Aftermath
Established bioaccumulation and biomagnification as central concepts in environmental toxicology, and gave its name to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, adopted in 2013.
Relationships
- Located in: Japan
Related intelligence
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Sources
- Peer-reviewed scientific literature — Open-access hydrology, water chemistry and water use research. Public but restricted · Publisher terms — public access, reuse not clearly granted