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Minamata. By: Laya Bataineh , Sari Salti & Yousser Louhaichi. Table Of Content. How it started? What is it? The effect on the environment Media Coverage Pressure Groups Bibliography. How It Started.
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Minamata By: LayaBataineh,Sari Salti & Yousser Louhaichi
Table Of Content • How it started? • What is it? • The effect on the environment • Media Coverage • Pressure Groups • Bibliography
How It Started • A factory that produced chemical fertilizers dumped waste into a nearby bay causing the mercury level to rise effecting sea life. • People of the city that depended on the bay as a food source noticed illnesses from the people
What is it? • Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning affecting the nervous system. • An outbreak of Minamata disease was first reported in May 1956in Minamata bay, Japan. • Mercury poison entered the food chain. Contaminating the water then the fish effecting the humans and land animals.
The effect on the environment • These pollutants had an environmental impact, fisheries were damaged in terms of reduced catches. • Tests revealed that the waste water contained many heavy metals sufficiently high to bring about serious environmental degradation including lead, mercury, manganese, arsenic, thallium and copper.
Media Coverage • Photographic documentation of the Minamata disease started in the early 1960s. • Photographers Such as W. Eugene Smith captured images of people with the disease to raise awareness and dramatically illustrate the consequences of the disease.
Pressure Groups • Pressure groups were formed in the 1960s and 1970s as a response to increasing environmental problems. • These groups were independent of formal political parties and focused on single, usually local, environmental issues. • Citizens’ movements were reminiscent of earlier citizen protests in the 1890s. As a result of this pressure, Japan began in the early 1970s to combat pollution on an official governmental level, with the establishment of the Environmental Agency. • Although the agency lacked strong public influence and political power, it established effective regulations to curb pollution from reaching the people.
Bibliography • http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/14/the_odd_body_minimata_disaster/ • http://www.nimd.go.jp/archives/english/tenji/a_corner/a01.html • http://www.nimd.go.jp/syakai/webversion/SSSGMDreport.html • http://homepages.gac.edu/~lmahoney/environmental/disease.html • http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-7105.html • http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-7105.html