What enlightenment did the Minamata Disease incident give us?

1. What caused the Minamata Disease in Japan? 2. What enlightenment did the Minamata Disease incident give us? 3. How did the Minamata Disease incident occur? 4. How did the Minamata disease incident occur in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan? What causes Minamata disease in Japan

Minamata disease is a comprehensive disease caused by humans or other animals eating fish and shellfish contaminated with organic mercury, which causes the organic mercury to invade brain nerve cells. , is one of the most typical public nuisance diseases in the world. Below I share the reasons for the Minamata disease incident in Japan, let’s take a look.

The causes of the Minamata Disease incident in Japan

The causes of "Minamata Disease"

The culprit of "Minamata Disease" was nitrogen, which was the cutting-edge technology of the world's chemical industry at that time. (N)Manufacturing enterprise. Nitrogen is used in the manufacture of daily necessities such as soap and chemical seasonings, as well as industrial products such as acetic acid (CH3COOH) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Japan's nitrogen industry was founded in 1906. Since then, the chemical fertilizer manufacturing industry has developed rapidly due to the extensive use of chemical fertilizers. Some people even say that "the history of nitrogen is the history of Japan's chemical industry" and Japan's economic growth is "based on nitrogen." It was completed with the support of the chemical industry led by China." However, the wanton development of this "pioneer industry" has brought endless disasters to local residents and their living environment.

During the manufacturing process of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, catalysts containing mercury (Hg) are used, which causes the discharged wastewater to contain a large amount of mercury. When mercury is eaten by aquatic organisms in water, it is converted into methylmercury (CH3HgCl). This highly toxic substance can kill people as long as it is half the size of an earpick. At that time, due to the continuous production of nitrogen, the methylmercury content in Minamata Bay reached a level that could poison the entire population of Japan more than twice. . Minamata Bay has been seriously polluted due to the discharge of industrial wastewater all year round, and the fish and shrimp in Minamata Bay have also been polluted. These contaminated fish and shrimps enter the bodies of animals and humans through the food chain. Methylmercury enters the human body through fish and shrimp, is absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, and damages the brain and other parts of the body. Methylmercury entering the brain will shrink the brain, damage nerve cells, and destroy the cerebellum and sensory systems that control body balance. According to statistics, hundreds of thousands of people have eaten fish and shrimp contaminated with methylmercury in Minamata Bay.

As early as many years ago, there were repeated reports about the changes in fish, crows, cats and other creatures in the "Shiranui Sea". In some places, even cats became extinct. "Minamata Disease" harmed the health and family happiness of local people, causing many people to be physically and mentally devastated, suffering a heavy economic blow, and even losing their families. What’s even more tragic is that due to methylmercury pollution, fish and shrimp in Minamata Bay can no longer be caught and eaten. Local fishermen have lost their livelihood and many families have fallen into poverty. "Shiranui Sea" has lost its vitality, and it is accompanied by endless depression.

Japan's economy recovered after World War II and its industry developed rapidly. However, due to the lack of corresponding environmental protection and pollution control measures at that time, industrial pollution and various pollution diseases were rampant. In addition to "Minamata disease", Yokkaichi asthma and Toyama "Itai-itai disease" all appeared during this period. Although Japan's industrial development has brought huge economic benefits, the irreparable damage to the ecological environment and the endless harmful public diseases have made the Japanese government and enterprises pay extremely expensive prices for treatment, treatment and compensation in the future. To this day, the protracted court proceedings over Minamata disease remain unresolved.

Analysis of the Minamata Disease Incident in Japan

Folding the culprit

Mercury, also known as mercury, is the silver-white metal that shows the temperature in our commonly used thermometers. It is a highly toxic heavy metal with strong volatility. The toxicity of mercury to organisms not only depends on its concentration, but also is closely related to the chemical form of mercury and the characteristics of the organisms themselves. It is generally believed that mercury enters the body through penetration of the body surface (skin and gills) of marine organisms or ingestion of food containing mercury.

Folding entry pathways

The main pathways for mercury to enter the ocean are industrial wastewater, the loss of mercury-containing pesticides, and the deposition of mercury-containing exhaust gases. In addition, mercury-containing slag and slurry are also sources. Why are there seafood containing mercury in Minamata Bay? This starts with a factory in Minamata Town. There is a synthetic acetic acid factory in Minamata Town, which uses two chemicals, mercury chloride and mercury sulfate, as catalysts in production.

The catalyst only plays a role in promoting chemical reactions during the production process. In the end, all of the catalyst is discharged into the adjacent Minamata Bay with the wastewater, and most of it settles in the mud at the bottom of the bay. Although the catalysts selected by the factory, mercury chloride and mercury sulfate, are themselves toxic, they are not very toxic. However, they can turn into very toxic methylmercury in the seafloor mud through the action of a type of bacteria called methylcobalamin. Methylmercury can be released at a rate of 1% every year, causing secondary pollution to the upper seawater. Fish, shrimps and shellfish that have lived here for a long time are most susceptible to being contaminated by methylmercury. According to measurements, the amount of mercury contained in seafood in Minamata Bay It has exceeded 50 times the edible amount. Residents who consume this kind of mercury-containing seafood for a long time will naturally become victims of methylmercury. Once methylmercury enters the human body, it will quickly dissolve in human fat, and most of it will accumulate in the human brain, adhering to nerve cells, reducing the amount of ribonucleic acid in the cells, causing cell division and death.

Folding fatal dose

Scientific experiments have confirmed that the safe concentration of mercury in human blood is 1 microgram/10 ml. When it reaches 5-10 micrograms/10 ml, obvious mercury levels will appear. Symptoms of poisoning. It has been calculated that if a person eats 200 grams of fish containing 0.5 mg/kg of mercury per day, the amount of mercury ingested by the human body is just within this safe range. However, it has been determined that the mercury content of seafood in Minamata Bay is as high as tens of milligrams per kilogram, which is far beyond the standard. In addition, people also eat other foods every day, which may also contain a certain amount of mercury. This makes the total intake throughout the day It far exceeds the safety limit standards.

Minamata disease is a public hazard caused directly by mercury pollution to the marine environment. Similar pollution poisoning incidents have been found in many places so far. Other heavy metals such as cadmium, cobalt, copper, zinc, chromium, etc. have also been found. , and non-metallic arsenic. Many of their chemical properties are similar to mercury, which cannot but arouse people's vigilance. The occurrence of another "bone pain disease", after long-term follow-up research, was finally confirmed to be a heavy metal cadmium. caused by pollution.

Folding heredity

Minamata disease is also highly heritable. Pregnant women who eat seafood contaminated with methylmercury may cause congenital Minamata disease in their babies. The offspring of some healthy people (perhaps mildly affected and with no obvious symptoms) cannot escape bad luck. Many children with congenital Minamata disease have motor and speech impairments, and their symptoms resemble those of polio, which shows that it is not easy to eliminate the impact of Minamata disease. As a result, environmental scientists believe that heavy metal pollution in sediments is a "ticking time bomb" in the environment. When external conditions adapt, it may cause premature explosion. For example, under anoxic conditions, some anaerobic organisms can methylate inorganic metals. Especially in the past 20 years, the uncontrolled discharge of a large number of pollutants has caused the adsorption capacity of some harbors and coastal sediments to become saturated, which may detonate this chemical pollution "time bomb" at any time.

Japan's Minamata disease environmental incident has warning significance for China's environmental protection

As one of Japan's four major public hazards, the "Minamata disease incident" has been the first case of "Minamata disease" since May 1, 1956. In the 50 years since Minamata Disease was diagnosed, 2,265 people have been diagnosed (1,573 of whom have died), and another 11,540 people have not been medically recognized but have been affected by Minamata disease either physically or mentally. , on December 15, 1995, under the mediation of the Japanese government, the company received a one-time compensation of 2.6 million yen per capita from the pollutant discharge company.

It is reported that this company first discharged mercury-containing wastewater from 1932 to 1956. The first patient was diagnosed in 1968, and the period spanned 36 years until the government ordered companies to stop sewage discharge in 1968. The direct damage caused and the cost of eliminating the damage reached 300 billion yen, and this figure continues every day. Increase.

On October 15, 2004, 45 people sued the Japanese government for administrative inaction and won the case in the Japanese Supreme Court. The "Minamata Disease Incident" once again attracted social attention. After learning about the cause of Minamata Disease in 2017, the decision to ban the discharge of mercury-containing wastewater was not made until 12 years later. The government should bear administrative responsibility for the expansion of Minamata Disease. Currently, more than 3,700 people have resorted to legal action to demand that the government bear the damage.

It is reported that in order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the diagnosis of Minamata Disease on May 1, the Minamata City Government will hold a memorial prayer for the deceased in front of the newly completed Minamata Disease Memorial Monument on that day. ceremony.

Starting from the beginning of this year, major Japanese media began planning and filming commemorative special episodes about the 50th anniversary of Minamata Disease. The Mainichi Shimbun published here also started a column today to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the diagnosis of Minamata disease, and the column will last until early May.

Jia Feng, leader of the filming team and deputy director of the Publicity and Education Center of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said, "Fifty years have passed, but the losses caused by Minamata disease to the lives and physical and mental health of the Japanese people are still difficult to heal, and the pollution-discharging companies and The government has shouldered a heavy economic and moral burden and is unable to extricate itself." He said that Japan's "four major public hazards", represented by Minamata disease, caused by neglecting environmental protection in the process of economic growth have profound lessons, and China must attach great importance to it. learn a lesson.

The "Japan Environmental Protection Window" TV film crew, jointly formed by the Publicity and Education Center of the State Environmental Protection Administration and China Central Television, began intense filming work after arriving in Japan on March 30. According to the plan, the film crew will stay in Japan for a month, traveling from southwest to northeast and traveling through the Japanese archipelago. The subjects of the filming include senior officials such as the Minister of Environment, as well as famous scholars, business executives and ordinary citizens. The interviews will be rich in content.

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Minamata Disease seriously harmed the health and family happiness of local people. Minamata Disease Incident caused many people to be physically and mentally devastated, and even their families were destroyed. . The fish and shrimp caused by the Minamata Disease incident in Minamata Bay can no longer be caught and eaten. The local fishermen have lost their livelihood and many families have fallen into poverty. As of 2006, 2,265 people have been diagnosed with Minamata disease, and most of them have died.

The Minamata Disease incident has given us much more to think about. After the Japanese Nitrogen Fertilizer Company’s sewage discharge was confirmed to be the source of the disease in 1956, the Japanese government did nothing, so that the company continued to discharge sewage unscrupulously for 12 years until Until 1968. Later, 45 victims jointly filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government's inaction in the Minamata disease incident to the Supreme Court of Japan, and won the case in 2004.

The court ruled that the Japanese government should immediately order polluting companies to stop infringement after learning about the cause of Minamata disease in 1956, but the government did not make a decision until 12 years later. For this reason, the Japanese government should be responsible for the failure to do so in a timely manner. The decision will lead to the expansion of the scope of damage caused by Minamata disease and bear administrative responsibility.

Japanese industry developed rapidly after World War II. However, due to the lack of environmental protection measures, industrial pollution and various public diseases were rampant. Although the economy has developed, environmental damage and endless pollution diseases have cost the Japanese government and enterprises an extremely expensive price.

The story of the incident

In 1956, a strange disease was discovered near Minamata Bay. This condition first appears in cats and is known as "feline chorea." Sick cats have unsteady gaits, convulsions, paralysis, and even jump into the sea to die. They are called "suicidal cats." Soon afterwards, people suffering from this disease were also found here. The patient's symptoms are as described above due to damage to the central nervous system and peripheral nerves of the brain.

At that time, this disease was called a "strange disease" because its cause was unknown. This "strange disease" was the "Minamata disease" that became a sensation around the world in the future. It was the earliest public nuisance disease caused by industrial wastewater discharge pollution.

Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Minamata Disease Incident in Japan How did the Minamata Disease incident occur?

Minamata City is a small coastal town with beautiful scenery and prosperous fishery in southern Japan. It is in the south of Kyushu. In the early 1950s, some demon seemed to have descended here, bringing a series of disasters to this small town.

In the blue sea, dead fish with white bellies appeared; in the bright sky, flying seabirds suddenly fell into the sea; there were even cats in the city, a They all seemed to be possessed by evil spirits, twitching all over, spinning around crazily, and finally committed suicide by jumping into the sea.

Disaster soon befalls people. Some people are like cats jumping into the sea, sometimes crazy and irritable, sometimes stupid, sleeping for a long time, with numb limbs, confusion, and finally death from convulsions. When such cases began to appear in 1956, people did not know the cause, and medically it could only be called Minamata disease. Soon more than a thousand people died in Japan, shocking the whole world. Finally, people found the cause of the disease, which was central nervous system mercury poisoning caused by upstream sewage discharge.

It turns out that after industrial development, many factories discharged industrial sewage into seawater. A lot of metallic mercury also enters the marine ecosystem along with sewage. Plankton, shellfish, shrimp, and fish eat a lot of mercury first, followed by birds, cats, and finally people. Mercury "travels" along the food chain of marine and coastal organisms.

The scary thing about mercury is not only that it is poisonous, but also that it is not decomposed or excreted in the living body, but constantly accumulates. From shrimp to fish to cats to humans, mercury is passed level by level along the food chain, and the dose increases step by step. In ecology, this phenomenon is called bioconcentration. Inorganic compounds of mercury can form highly toxic methylmercury under the action of some anaerobic microorganisms, which can poison people or organisms to death. Methylmercury can also pass through the placenta and poison the fetus, causing dementia or disability in children.

Mercury originally existed mainly in the mineral state outside the ecological cycle. Due to human production activities, it was released and then entered the ecological cycle. It is human beings who have brought disaster to themselves.

A similar situation is "bone pain". People with this disease have fragile bones and are prone to fractures, and even sneezing may cause rib fractures. Due to multiple fractures on his body, the patient was in excruciating pain and wailed day and night. Everyone who heard it was horrified. Medical workers once found 73 fractures in a patient who died of osteoarthritis. This disease also first appeared in Japan, and most of the patients were women. The cause was that cadmium-containing wastewater polluted water sources, and people ate rice and soybeans irrigated with sewage. How did the Minamata disease incident in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan happen?

The water pollution caused by the Minamata Disease incident in Japan is inseparable from the development of its industry. During the period of rapid economic growth after the war, Japan focused on the development of heavy chemical industries. The wastewater discharged by them contained large amounts of heavy metals, toxic sludge, polychlorinated biphenyls, oils and phenols, which seriously polluted the water quality. Heavy metals in industrial wastewater are mainly mercury, cadmium, etc. They are enriched in the ecosystem food chain and accumulate thousands of times in the body of organisms. After these organisms are swallowed by fish, they are further concentrated and enriched in the body of the fish. People Once these aquatic products are consumed, chronic poisoning will occur.

Minamata Disease

Minamata is a small town in southern Kyushu, Japan, under the jurisdiction of Kumamoto Prefecture. The town has 40,000 residents, and more than 10,000 farmers and fishermen live in the surrounding villages. To the west are the Shiranui Sea and Minamata Bay, which are rich in fish, so the fishing industry is prosperous. In 1925, the Japanese Nitrogen Fertilizer Company built a factory here to produce nitrogen fertilizer, vinyl acetate, vinyl chloride, etc. With the continuous development of the company, disasters brought to the local people also began to befall. In 1950, some crazy cats appeared in a small fishing village near Minamata Bay. They had unsteady gait, panic, cramps and paralysis, and finally jumped into the water and drowned. They were called "suicide cats" by the locals. At that time, this strange story of a crazy cat jumping into the sea did not attract people's attention. In 1953, a man with a strange illness appeared in Minamata Town. At first, he had slurred speech, unsteady gait, and facial dementia. Later, he developed deafness, blindness, and general numbness. Finally, he suffered from a neurological disorder. Sometimes he fell asleep, sometimes he was extremely excited, and his body Like bending a bow, shouting and dying. In April 1956, a 6-year-old girl was admitted to the hospital with the same symptoms and was initially diagnosed as a brain disease. In May of the same year, 4 more patients with the same condition were admitted to the hospital, and more than 50 patients were not admitted to the hospital. That attracted people's attention. The local Kumamoto University School of Medicine, the City Medical Association and hospitals formed a Minamata Strange Disease Countermeasures Committee to conduct an investigation. During the investigation, the mad cat and the strange patient were linked and analyzed, and it was confirmed that this was caused by wastewater discharged from the Nitrogen Company's food factory. This is because the factory used low-cost mercury catalysts (mercuric chloride and mercury sulfate) when producing vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, and discharged a large amount of toxic water waste residue containing methylmercury into Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea, causing serious damage to the Haishen fish and shrimp. After local residents have eaten this contaminated seafood for many years, their brains and nervous systems have been damaged. Specific symptoms include dull eyes, frequent drooling, trembling hands and feet, and jumping around wildly during attacks. This is an incurable disease that can cause life-long disability in mild cases and death in severe cases. Because this strange disease occurred in the Minamata area, it was called "Minamata disease."

"Minamata disease" has brought endless disasters to people. The first to bear the brunt is the fishing industry. Because the fish was poisonous, residents were afraid to eat it, businesses began to close down, and thousands of fishermen were forced to join the ranks of unemployment. In the spring of 1958, the factory discharged poisonous water into the northern part of Minamata Town in order to cover up the public's confusion, creating a new pollution area. Six or seven months later, 18 more mercury poisoning patients appeared there.

Local residents asked the government to investigate the matter, but the factory obstructed it in every possible way, and the local authorities had an ambiguous attitude. As a result, Minamata disease spread rapidly throughout Japan. In 1963, a large number of "suicidal cats" and "suicidal dogs" appeared in Shinke Prefecture, downstream of the Agano River Basin on the west coast of Japan. In August 1964, more than 90% of local cats committed suicide, and residents with dead cats also began to develop symptoms of Minamata disease. In a short period of time, the number of patients increased to 45, and 5 of them died. They all ate the most Agano River fish. This incident was caused by the discharge of mercury-containing wastewater from Showa Electric Company's Shikase Factory. Because the symptoms were the same as "Minamata Disease", it was called "Second Minamata Disease". According to an announcement by the Japanese Environment Agency in 1972, there were 283 mercury poisoning patients in the Minamata Bay of Kumamoto Prefecture and the Agano River of Shinto Prefecture, Japan, 60 of whom had died, and the number of affected residents had reached about 10,000. Minamata disease caused many families to lose their wives and families. There are still reports of the consequences of Minamata disease in Japanese newspapers and magazines.