Pathology of Minamata disease.

An autopsy case of minamata disease (methylmercury poisoning)--pathological viewpoints of peripheral nerves.

The outbreak of methylmercury poisoning in the geographic areas around Minamata Bay, Kumamoto, Japan in the 1950s has become known as Minamata disease. Based on earlier reports and extensive pathological studies on autopsied cases at the Kumamoto University School of Medicine, destructive lesions in the anterior portion of the calcarine cortex and depletion predominantly of granular cells in th...

Minamata Disease in Japan

Minamata Disease and the Mercury Pollution of the Globe

Minamata Disease was discovered for the first time in the world at Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in 1956 (Minamata Disease Research Group; 1968, Harada M; 1995), and for the next time at Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, in 1965 (Tsubaki T & Irukayama K; 1977). The both cases were attributed to the methyl mercury that was generated in the process for producing acetaldehyde u...

Minamata disease revisited: an update on the acute and chronic manifestations of methyl mercury poisoning.

The first well-documented outbreak of acute methyl mercury (MeHg) poisoning by consumption of contaminated fish occurred in Minamata, Japan, in 1953. The clinical picture was officially recognized and called Minamata disease (MD) in 1956. However, 50 years later there are still arguments about the definition of MD in terms of clinical symptoms and extent of lesions. We provide a historical revi...

Minamata disease: catastrophic poisoning due to a failed public health response.

We present the history of Minamata disease in a chronological order from the public health point of view. Because the appropriate public health response - to investigate and control the outbreak - as set out in the Food Sanitation Act was not conducted, no one knew how many became ill following the outbreak. Exposure could not be stopped. In our discussion, we offer two reasons as to why the Ja...