Monday, October 31, 2011

A History to Remember...

Hello blogger, first of all i dont really know how to write an article and i just try my best.This is my first article for this month, happy reading and gain some knowledge for future :D

Minamata disease or also known as Chisso-minamata disease is a neurological syndrome cause by mercury poisoning.it was first discovered Minamata city in Kumamoto prefecture Japan in 1956.it was cause by releasing of methyl-mercury from chisso corporation chemical factory since 1932 to 1968. this highly toxic chemical bio accumulate with marine life at minamata bay and Shiranui sea. which when eaten by the populace near Minamata bay and Shiranui sea will cause in mercury poisoning and the symptom ataxia, numbness in the hand and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing field of vision and damage of hearing and speech and for some highly expose to the poisoning can cause insanity, paralysis, coma, and death.while human death are continued over years, yet the company did little to prevent the polution.

on october 21 1959, chisso corporation was ordered by Ministry of International Trade and Industry to change its wastewater drainage from minamata river to hyakken harbour and off cause to speed up the installation of the wastewater treatment system at the company factory.On 19 December 1959, the company installed a cyclator purification system but sadly it was just for social solution and ineffective to treat the mercury in the wastewater. in late 1960 kumamoto and kagoshima government conducted a joint survey on human hair all around the inland sea near the Chisso factory and the result confirm that the mercury are still spreading around the sea through contaminated fish.average reading for the people that are poison by mercury are greater than 50ppm.

"Minamata disease is a disease of the central nervous system, a poisoning caused by long-term consumption, in large amounts, of fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay. The causative agent is methylmercury. Methylmercury produced in the acetaldehyde acetic acid facility of Shin Nihon Chisso's Minamata factory was discharged in factory wastewater... Minamata disease patients last appeared in 1960, and the outbreak has ended. This is presumed to be because consumption of fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay was banned in the fall of 1957, and the fact that the factory had waste-treatment facilities in place from January 1960."

you can drop some comment for me to improve in future. Thank you for reading and hopefully this tragedy wont happen again and sorry this is last minute article dont know what to write about and this article are base on my first semester experience :D

-AIZUDDIN-

2 comments:

  1. 1. It's a good article as a when Minamata strikes - what you have in mind is "Mercury". So, Is "METHYL-mercury" is the only form of mercury that are dangerous to humans? what about other form of mercury? (e.g : isobutyl-mercury? etc)

    2. You stated that this disease came from wastewater - I presume it is a waste / act as a byproduct of something. So what exactly does the factory do that causes the wastewater to have methyl mercury? what sorts of things that the factory have made?

    3. You've mentioned "kumamoto and kagoshima government conducted a joint survey on human hair" . Why are they collecting human hair as the sample? Why not other biological samples such as blood / urine??? Will the result be strong enough for hair sample only? What do you think?

    4. The toxic level reported is >50 ppm. What is the standard level? When there are reports on levels on any substances. You should mention the safe / standard levels that are safe for humans. So that we can compare and it makes the statement much clearer. If you said it is 50ppm then people would question. "So.... what is the safe level?" , "Why the figure is important?" , "So what? why should I worry about the level?"

    ReplyDelete