WorldTimes of India
Disease from poisoned seafood devastates Japanese coastal community
in5points
Minamata disease was caused by methylmercury poisoning from industrial wastewater released by Chisso Corporation into Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea since 1932.
Initial signs appeared in animals: cats behaved erratically and collapsed into the sea, birds fell from the sky, and fish floated lifelessly in the bay.
On 1 May 1956, doctors at the Chisso factory hospital reported a cluster of patients with an unknown neurological disorder, later named Minamata disease.
The disease attacked the central nervous system, causing numbness, and permanently disabled thousands, becoming a defining environmental health disaster.
It fundamentally changed pollution control laws worldwide.
