Life after minamata

Sometimes we need a push, a deadline, or even a threat to get us into action. Minamata provides us with a serious push with regard to what we will be using to restore posterior teeth in the future.

Minamata is a city in Japan. A chemical company was established there in 1908 (Chisso Co) and, in 1932, they started making acetaldehyde, a chemical which is used, with others, to make plastics. Mercury was used as a catalyst. It appears that organic mercury was dumped into the ocean; the locals (and the local cats) ate the fish and shellfish. Cats started going crazy, sometimes throwing themselves into the sea. Humans had difficulty walking, talking and eating; some had convulsions and died. The resultant mercury poisoning affected 60,000 people and was first reported in 1956, being then and now one of the world's worst environmental disasters. The Ministry of Trade and Industry blocked researchers from getting access to company waste and eventually made the company install a cyclator (sedimentation system) and, by 1959, there was agreement with patients of the ‘Minamata disease’ to give sympathy money in return for promising not to sue. In 1968, the Government officially announced the cause and, in 1973, Chisso Co lost a lawsuit, the largest settlement in Japan at that time.1