Minamata Disease and The
Photography of W Eugene Smith
Martin Donohoe
http://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org
Outline
• Introduction
• Mercury and Methylmercury as
pollutants
• Minamata Disease
• W Eugene Smith – bio and photos
Mercury
• Syphilis Treatment
- 15th Century onward
- abandoned 1940 for penicillin
• Recognized as cause of disease in 19th
Century (Hunter-Russell Syndrome)
- chemists, hatters
Mercury
• Added by US government to industrial
during Prohibition to make it more lethal
and discourage moonshine production
(1926-1933)
–Led to more than 10,000 deaths
Mercury
• Released into air by coal combustion,
industrial processes, mining, and waste
disposal
–4500 tons/yr
• Travels throughout atmosphere and
settles in oceans and waterways
• Bacteria convert it to toxic methylmercury
Mercury
• Travels up food chain via fish
–Avoid top predators (tuna, shark,
swordfish)
–1/3 of US exposure to methylmercury
from canned tuna
Gold Mining
Gold = Cyanide + Mercury
• Mercury used to capture gold particles as
an amalgam
• Gold leached from ore using cyanide
–Cyanide paralyzes cellular respiration
• At least 18 tons of mine waste created to
obtain the gold for a single 3 oz., 18k ring
Gold Mining and Mercury
• Contaminated groundwater often sits in
large toxic lakes held in place by tenuous
dams
• Release of cyanide and mercury into local
waterways kills fish, harms fish-eating
animals, and poisons drinking water
Mercury
• Bacteria convert it to toxic methylmercury
(MeHg)
• Travels up food chain via fish
• Long biological half-life
- 1-3 years in humans
• Regulation inadequate
– Allows “cap and trade”
Mercury
• 16% of women of childbearing age
exceed the EPA’s “safe” mercury level
• Freshwater fish mercury levels too high
for pregnant women to eat in 43 states
• Mercury dental amalgams pose health
risks to pregnant women, unborn babies,
and children (FDA Black Box Warning added
2009)
Minamata Bay
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Southern Japan
Shiranui Sea
Fishing village
Villagers: fisherman/Chisso Corporation
employees and their families
Chisso Corporation
• Established 1918
• Produced acetaldehyde for plastics, drugs,
perfumes, photography
• Mercury (Hg) catalyst
• Byproduct = methylmercury, dumped into bay
(150 tons over 4 decades)
• Dumped over 60 deadly poisons, including
vinyl chloride (cause of liver cancer)
Chronology of Chisso's
Environmental Pollution
• 1925 - local fishing cooperative compensated
for decreased catch
• 1950s - bizarre behavioral changes observed
in birds, marine fish, land vertebrates; oysters
vanish
• 1950s / 1960s - reports in Japanese medical
journals about human cases
Chronology of Chisso's
Environmental Pollution
• 1956 - cause (MeHg) of Minamata Disease
elucidated
• 1958-60 - reports in English medical journals
• 1959-69 - Dr. Hosokawa's experiments
– Cat #400
– Other studies
• 1959 cyclator added
– Removed Hg, but not MeHg
Chronology of Chisso's
Environmental Pollution
• 1965 - fishing banned in Minamata Bay after
similar events noted in Niigata, Japan
• 1968 - all acetaldehyde-producing plants have
ceased operating
• 1970 - Japan Water Pollution Control Act
– Allowed no detectable Hg or MeHg in waste water
Chronology of Chisso's
Environmental Pollution
• 1997 – Minamata Bay declared free of
mercury
• 2004 – Japanese Supreme Court rules
government shares responsibility for
epidemic (government slow to react, cut
off research funding in 1962)
Minamata Disease
• 3,000 official cases in Minamata Bay
(almost 1800 dead); tens of thousands of
unofficial cases; 10,000 received financial
compensation
• Social stigma / Poor health care
Mercury: S/S, Dx, and Rx
• S/S: neuropsychiatric symptoms, excessive
salivation/inflammation of gums, rash,
nephropathy
– Linked to autism
• Dx: mercury levels in air, blood, urine (>100
mcg/l in blood and/or urine = toxic)
• Rx: chelation with BAL, penicillamine, DMPS,
DMSA
Minamata Disease:
Signs and Symptoms
• Acute / Chronic Poisoning:
– numbness, slurred speech, ataxia, unsteady gait,
deafness, poor vision, dysphagia, hypersalivation,
confusion, drowsiness/stupor to
irritability/restlessness; chronic liver disease, liver
cancer, hypertension, autoimmune disorders
– death within a few months if severe
• Rx EDTA – only partially effective
Minamata Disease:
Signs and Symptoms
• Congenital: high dose → infertility; medium
dose → spontaneous abortions; low dose →
congenital disease (including anencephaly and
spina bifida)
• S/S: poor physical growth, mental retardation,
impaired speech/chewing/swallowing, muscle
tone abnormalities, involuntary movements,
constricted visual fields
- EDTA not effective
Civil suit vs. Chisso (1969-73)
• Plaintiffs awarded $66,000 for deceased
victims, $59,000 - $66,000 for survivors
• Precedent - Niigata suit versus Showa
Denko
• $3.4 million paid out the first night, $80
million paid out by 1975
Civil suit vs. Chisso (1969-73)
• Dr. Hosokawa key witness (from
deathbed)
–Identity - company employee vs.
impartial physician with obligation to
patients
–Loyalty - company vs. to public
Reasons for Delayed Recognition
and Action
• Science slow, unfunded/underfunded,
corrupt
• Dissemination of knowledge slow
• Social stigma of disease, fear of
contagion
• Pressure from fisheries cooperative,
Chisso employees
Reasons for Delayed Recognition
and Action
• Lack of local/world awareness of health
effects of pollution
• Strong government-business links in
Japan, employee loyalty strong
Decreasing Causes and Limiting
Consequences of Mercury Pollution
• Phase out coal burning power plants
• Hospitals phasing out mercury
thermometers
• Stop buying gold (e.g., wedding rings)
• Make healthy seafood purchases
• Screen and treat when appropriate
Minamata Convention
• 2013: Over 140 countries (including U.S.) have
agreed on a set of legally binding measures to
curb mercury pollution
– Signing expected October, 2013
– Treaty to cover medical equipment, lightbulbs,
mining/cement/coal-fired power sectors,
education and training, and public awareness
campaigns
Minamata Disease Memorial
W Eugene Smith
• Born 1918, Wichita, KS
• Local news photographer at age 15
• Turned down scholarship to Notre Dame
to study photography at NY Institute of
Photography
• Worked for Newsweek, then Life, then
Magnum
W Eugene Smith
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Married to Aileen Smith, photojournalist
Minamata: Final Assignment
Beaten by Chisso employees
Died 1978
Role of the Media in Promoting Awareness
of Environmental Health Issues
• Books
– Henrik Ibsen’s Enemy of the People
– Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
– Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
• Photography
– W. Eugene and Aileen Smith's Minamata photoessay
– Jacob Riis, Dorothea Lange, Sebastiao Salgado, James
Nachtwey, others
• Film, TV
Contact Info, References
Martin Donohoe
[email protected]
This slide show and others available at
http://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org
http://www.phsj.org