The famous photo of the Minamata incident "Tomoko Bathing"
In 1956, a "strange disease" appeared in Minamata Bay, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. This kind of horrible disease that can cause people to express slurred speech, staggering steps, neurological disorders, deformities, deformities of hands and feet, body bending and screaming... until death is minamata disease .
Minamata disease is known as one of the eight major public hazards in the world. Its pathogenic mechanism is that the patient ingests a large amount of organic mercury, which leads to poisoning, damages the brain of the patient and causes irreversible results. It also affects the fetus through pregnant women, and no Effective treatment.
The city of Minamata in Japan is famous for its seafood. The main food of the locals is aquatic products. The large number of Minamata disease patients discovered at the beginning were also local fishermen.
The "Minamata Disease Countermeasures Committee" of the Japanese government dissected the deceased from Minamata disease, and inspected local seafood and the seawater of Minamata Bay, and found that a large amount of heavy metals, especially organic mercury, contained the highest content, thus concluding this frightening The disease is organic mercury poisoning.
But surprisingly, the cause of the disease was found, but the Japanese government hurriedly ended the research work without further investigating the source of these organic mercury!
In fact, the Japanese government does not investigate and everyone understands that these heavy metals come from the chemical waste water of Japan Chosu Co., Ltd. Because this nitrogen fertilizer plant uses cheap but highly toxic mercury-containing catalysts in order to save costs.
The waste water containing a large amount of mercury chloride is discharged into the sea and transformed into highly toxic methylmercury through bacterial transformation. Microorganisms and algae absorb methylmercury . Shrimp eats microorganisms, big fish eats shrimp, people eat fish, organic mercury accumulates in the human body, and ultimately causes irreversible and major physical damage.
If the safe concentration of mercury in the human body exceeds every 10ml/5μg, it will be severely poisoned.What's more, some fish in Minamata Bay had tens of thousands of times the normal mercury content!
Sadly, due to the lack of government support and expert testimony, Japanese fishermen have no choice but to suffocate the company. The attitude of the Japanese government is also ambiguous. In order to maintain the post-war economic construction, it turned a blind eye to the pollution discharge of the company. In addition, the Chosu Club pushed 625, refusing to admit that the cause of Minamata Disease was related to their company's wastewater. Subsequently, the Minamata Incident became more and more turbulent, and fishermen took to the streets to protest, and the government came forward to mediate.
So far, the suffocating element has still not solved the problem of compensation for the patients and fishermen of the Minamata incident, and the restoration of the local ecological environment is nowhere in sight.
As of 2012, there were 48,327 official cases of Minamata disease and more than 2,000 deaths. It has been 41 years since the onset of Minamata disease and the release of the safety declaration by Japan. The local government's use of drag-and-drop judgments is truly amazing!
This time, the Japanese Yoshihide Suga government approved TEPCO to discharge nuclear waste water into the sea, which is also known as conforming to world standards. Moreover, Japanese politicians brag irresponsibly that nuclear waste water is safe and harmless to drink. If it is really harmless, why not directly irrigate Japanese farmland? Drink directly? It's a steal. This is similar to the ambiguous handling of the Minamata incident.
Organic mercury is more toxic, or is it more harmful if it comes into contact with nuclear waste water that damages the core? The discharge of TEPCO nuclear wastewater into the sea has the same circulation mechanism as organic mercury, and it is more deadly! Not only will it harm the marine environment, but the destruction of fishery resources will eventually harm mankind! Hurt self and others!
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