Minamata Bay

In the early 1970s, while documenting mercury pollution in Japan's Minamata Bay, he was beaten by employees of the chemical company responsible for the environmental disaster, leading to the loss of vision in one eye.

David Schonauer: Suffering for Art and Telling a Story Nobody Else Will Tell David Schonauer 2010

In the early 1970s, while documenting mercury pollution in Japan's Minamata Bay, he was beaten by employees of the chemical company responsible for the environmental disaster, leading to the loss of vision in one eye.

David Schonauer: Suffering for Art and Telling a Story Nobody Else Will Tell David Schonauer 2010

At long last, the source of what had come to be known as “Minamata disease” was identified: a chemical factory was dumping its wastewater into Minamata Bay.

Origins Annie Murphy Paul 2010

In the early 1970s, while documenting mercury pollution in Japan's Minamata Bay, he was beaten by employees of the chemical company responsible for the environmental disaster, leading to the loss of vision in one eye.

David Schonauer: Suffering for Art and Telling a Story Nobody Else Will Tell David Schonauer 2010

In the early 1970s, while documenting mercury pollution in Japan's Minamata Bay, he was beaten by employees of the chemical company responsible for the environmental disaster, leading to the loss of vision in one eye.

David Schonauer: Suffering for Art and Telling a Story Nobody Else Will Tell David Schonauer 2010

This was well demonstrated in the Minamata Bay exposures (from toxic dumping into the ocean) and the Iraq grain contamination disaster (mercury was applied to prevent spoilage of grain used for planting, but the grain was eaten by accident).

The UltraMind Solution M.D. Mark Hyman 2009

In 1959, when the causative agent of the disease was found to be organic mercury, the mud of Minamata Bay was correspondingly found to contain an extremely large amount of mercury.

Materials flow of mercury in the economies of the United States and the world USGS 2009

In 1972, a widely publicized incident of mercury poisoning in Minamata Bay, Japan, led the Japanese government to prohibit the use of mercury cells for chlorine production.

Robert Stavins: Policies Can Work in Strange Ways 2009

A local factory discharged mercury into Minamata Bay, from which the community caught and ate fish that had accumulated high amounts of methylmercury.

Metal pollution in coastal environments 2007

Minamata Bay residents became increasingly organized and radicalized in the 1960s, as the government and the responsible company put off their claims and refused to deal substantively with the issue.

Minamata Justice 2004