MInimata Disease

I was disappointed in the lack of material presented about the mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan during the 1950s. The authors of the textbook even claim, "the poisonings at Minamata must surely rank as one of the major environmental disasters of modern times", but don't quantify the disaster. According to Japan's Ministry of the Environment, "2,265 individuals in Minamata and the surrounding area have been inflicted with mercury poisoning from the discharge of industrial waste water and 10,000 individuals are being compensated for their exposure and loses". Not to mention, the Japanese government and the Chisso corporation responsible for the mercury industrial waste have paid billions of yen to dredge the sediment containing the mercury and also to develop education programs about mercury poisoning. The picture really shows the horrible crippling that the body undergoes when exposed to toxic levels of methylmercury.