8A+Minamata+pg3+ruth

=**MINAMATA DISASTER **= =**HOW DID IT HAPPEN? WHO OR WHAT CAUSED THE DISASTER? **= =**Methyl mercury an organic mercury compound released in factory wastewater and cause of Minamata disease. **= =**From around 1950 onwards, while cat had been seen to have convulsion, go mad and die. The local called it the “cat dancing disease” owing to their unpredictable movement. **= =**Crows had fallen from the sky; seaweeds no longer grew on the sea bed and fish floated dead on the surface of the sea. **= =**The Chisso Corporation first opened a chemical factory in Minamata in 1908. When Chisso Corporatio n factory pour chemical reaction into the sink and the sink went down to the ocean and to the rivers. The families were gathering in fishing in a village along the shore of Minamata Bay. The staple food of victims was regularly fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay. **= = = =** The pollution wastewater had damaged the fishier around Minamata ever since the opening of the Chisso factory in 1908. **= =**This was caused by some kind of food poisoning with dirty fish and shellfish the main suspects. **= =**It was caused by the release of methyl mercury in the manufacturing wastewater from the Chisso Corporation’s chemical factory, which continued from 1932 to 1968. This highly toxic chemical bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish in Minamata Bay and Shiranui Sea, which when eaten by the local population resulted in mercury poisoning. While cat, dog, pig and human deaths continued over more than 30 years, the government and company did little put off the pollution. **= = = = = =8AMinamata8a minimata page 1 andrea8a Minamata pg2 ashleigh8a Minamata pg5 Rebekah8a Minamata pg6 Nguyenminamta pg6 judy8a question 4 madi  = =8A Minamata Bibliography =