Minimata Disease and The Photography of W Eugene Smith

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Minimata Disease and The Photography of W Eugene
Smith

• Martin Donohoe
• http//www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org

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Mercury

• Syphilis Treatment
• - 15th Century onward
• - abandoned 1940 for penicillin
• Recognized as cause of disease in 19th Century
  (Hunter-Russell Syndrome)
• - chemists, hatters

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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

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Gold MiningGold 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

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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

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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

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Mercury

• 16 of women of childbearing age exceed the EPAs
  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)

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Minamata Bay

• Southern Japan
• Shiranui Sea
• Fishing village
• Villagers fisherman/Chisso Corporation employees
  and their families

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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Chronology of Chisso's Environmental Pollution

• 1997 Minimata 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)

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Minimata Disease

• 2578 official cases in Minamata Bay (almost 1800
  dead) many unofficial cases 10,000 received
  financial compensation
• Social stigma / Poor health care

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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 (gt100
  mcg/l in blood and/or urine toxic)
• Rx chelation with BAL, penicillamine, DMPS, DMSA

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Minimata DiseaseSigns 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
• death within a few months if severe
• Rx EDTA only partially effective 

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Minimata DiseaseSigns and Symptoms

• Congenital high dose ? infertility medium dose
  ? spontaneous abortions low dose ? congenital
  disease
• S/S poor physical growth, mental retardation,
  impaired speech/chewing/swallowing, muscle tone
  abnormalities, involuntary movements, constricted
  visual fields
• - EDTA not effective

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Minimata Disease Memorial
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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

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W Eugene Smith

• Married to Aileen Smith, photojournalist
• Minimata Final Assignment
• Beaten by Chisso employees
• Died 1978

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Role of the Media in Promoting Awareness of
Environmental Health Issues

• Books
• Henrik Ibsens 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

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Contact Info, References

• Martin Donohoe
• martindonohoe_at_phsj.org
• This slide show and others available at
• http//www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org
• http//www.phsj.org