Period+8+-+Minamata

__** Minamata Minamata Disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe poisioning of mercury. **__ **__Background__** The Strange Disease Countermeasures Committee was established by the city government in 1956.
 * its a form of mercury poisioning, that comes from contaminated fish.
 * 43 deaths occurred in the coastal town of Minamata, Japan during 1953-56
 * The source of mercury was traced to an effluent containing mercuric sulphate from a local PVC factory. Symptoms include numbness, difficulty in controlling the limbs, and impaired speech and hearing.[[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Map_Minamata_en.png/235px-Map_Minamata_en.png width="235" height="216" align="left" caption="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Map_Minamata_en.png" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Map_Minamata_en.png"]]
 * It was the most massive pollution problem to strike Japan in the post-Second World War period.
 * Minamata Disease was discovered for the first time in the world at Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in 1956
 * **__Investigation__**
 * On April 21st, 1956 a 5 year old girl was examined and was the first to test positive for the mercury poisoning.
 * They did not know it was mercury poisoning until the end of the epidemic.
 * On October 1956, 40 patients were discovered and 14 died: 37% mortality rate.
 * They did not know it was mercury poisoning until the end of the epidemic.
 * On October 1956, 40 patients were discovered and 14 died: 37% mortality rate.

The disease was suspected to be contagious, and because of this houses were disinfected. Patients were also isolated. The committee had discovered that wildlife around the infected's home had strange behavior. In some cases cats had gone mad and died. It was known to the locals as "cat dancing disease." Other strange happenings occured such as, dead fish floating to the top of water, seaweed not growing in sea beds, and an interesting one in that crows fell from the sky.


 * __Finding a Cause__**

The Kumamoto University had come to the conclusion that the victims had come from the same fishing cluster. They were fishing in the Minamata Bay. Their diet consisted of fish, and shellfish from the bay. The discovery that cats died upon eating the food scraps off of the table gave the researchers the idea that it was some type of food poisoning from the fish and shellfish. Once a heavy metal was found to be the cause, all of the attention was then focused was turned on the Chisso plant as the main origin. The people were blamed for the bringing of the plant. They welcomed it and, loved as it grew, and prospered from it. They also suffered greatly from it. Later in 1959 they reseached the mercury, and the results were suprising. Large quantaties of mercury were detected in fish, and shellfish.


 * __Laws and Policies__**

The Chisso plant was aware of the trouble they were causing, and decided that they needed to change the output of where the wastewater came from. They knew that they were the main cause of the disease. The city asked the national government what would be a fair compensation, and they also asked to set up a committee to decide.



[|http://www1.umn.edu/ships/ethics/minamata.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease]
 * __Sources__**

I like the bullet layout for your information, it makes it concise and easy to read. However, there are many grammar mistakes-- especially with commas--that should be fixed. -cvec8-18**
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