Minamata disaster

The Minamata disaster in Japan, when 52 people died in 1952, occurred because fish, which formed the staple diet of the small fishing community, contained abnormally high concentrations of mercury in the form of MeHgSMe. This was found to originate from a local chemical works where Hg salts were used (inefficiently) to catalyse the production of... 

The Minamata Bay disaster in 1953 (see Smith and Smith [9]) triggered an enormous amount of work, internationally, on techniques for determining mercury levels. Mercury occurs naturally in the environment in the form of mineral deposits and also anthropogenically from industrial and agricultural wastes. 

For various reasons, and especially the Minamata disaster, most kinetic studies on in vivo transmethylation have concentrated on mercury. The great majority of these have involved individual species of microorganisms or microbial communities as the actual methylators. There have been several reviews on the role of microorganisms in transmethylation (5, 6, 72) and other cyclic processes involving metals or metalloids (25, 73-75). 

The observation that victims of the Japanese Minamata disaster had suffered considerable damage to plasma membranes has led to investigation of possible reaction mechanisms whereby such damage may result from MeHg+ poisoning. It has been demonstrated that methylmercury is the most potent inhibitor of the enzyme adenyl cyclase yet reported.284 The enzyme occurs in liver plasma membranes and plays a part in the metabolism of mammalian cells. 

One of the particularly tragic aspects of the Minamata disaster was the effect methyl mercury exposure had on unborn children. Some of the mothers exposed to methyl mercury from the fish and seafood gave birth to babies who were severely affected with a disorder similar to infantile paralysis, suffering cerebral palsy and mental retardation. This occurred even in mothers who showed no symptoms themselves, a classic characteristic of a teratogen. Some babies were born completely paralysed. 

In addition organo-mercuiy compounds are of environmental interest in aquatic systems not only since the Minamata disaster (Takizawa 2000). Especially methylated mercuiy species were detected and monitored in riverine systems as the result of biotic transformation of inorganic mercury... 

Since the Minamata disaster in the 1950s, when hundreds of people were poisoned and several died because their fish diet was highly loaded with methylmercury, element species information has become of public interest. With the movie Erin Brokovich , a true story about a young woman who discovered chromium(VI) contamination of drinking water, speciation even made it into the cinema. ... 

Until the middle of the twentieth century, there was no conscience about the potential problems related to any inorganic or organic compound wasted in soil, rivers, lakes, and oceans or even in the atmosphere. Probably the Minamata disaster was the starting point of concern about the effects of pollution. In the following years, the conscience of the Americans was waked up for DDT problems. In sequence, peoples realized that the capacity of our rivers, lakes, oceans, soil, and atmosphere to accept aU kinds of pollutants is finite and started to look with more care for all aspects involving our environment. 

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