GC: n

S: WHO – https://bit.ly/2QfzkhL (last access: 31 May 2019); NCBI – https://bit.ly/2HNrec5 (last access: 31 May 2019).

N: 1. – Minamata (pn): City of Kumamoto (Japan).
– disease (n): early 14c., “discomfort, inconvenience, distress, trouble,” from Old French desaise “lack, want; discomfort, distress; trouble, misfortune; disease, sickness,” from des- “without, away” + aise “ease”. Restricted pathological sense of “sickness, illness” in English emerged by late 14c.; the word still sometimes was used in its literal sense early 17c., and was somewhat revived 20c., usually with a hyphen (dis–ease).

• Minamata disease was first discovered in Minamata City in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan in 1956.

2. A severe neurological disorder usually characterized by peripheral and circumoral paresthesia, ataxia, dysarthria, and loss of peripheral vision, resulting from poisoning by organic mercury, and leading to severe permanent neurological and mental disabilities or death.

3. Minamata disease is the same as methylmercury poisoning, and is characterized by neurological disorders such as ataxia, constriction of visual fields, and speech disturbance (the trias of Hunter-Russell syndrome).

4. Minamata disease resulted from environmental exposure to methylmercury through contaminated fish and shellfish consumption; i.e., it is different from the case of workers who were engaged in production of methylmercury compounds at a seed disinfectant plant in England (Hunter & Russell, 1954). This disaster, occurring in the vicinity of Minamata Bay in Kumamoto prefecture (Figure 1), was first reported in 1956, and it was estimated at the end of that year that 54 people had suffered from the disease since December 1953 and that 17 of them had already passed away. The second disaster occurred in the Agano River basin in Niigata prefecture in 1965. In July 1965, it was confirmed that there were 26 patients there and that five of them had died. Minamata disease is the same as methylmercury poisoning, and is characterized by neurological disorders such as ataxia, constriction of visual fields, and speech disturbance (the trias of Hunter-Russell syndrome). Methylmercury, discharged into water from two chemical plants (i.e., Chisso Company in Kumamoto and Showa Denko Company in Niigata), was absorbed in fish and shellfish through the gills or intestinal tracts and accumulated at high concentrations through the food chain.

S: 1. BUS – https://bit.ly/2W3WO7u (last access: 31 May 2019); Etymonline – https://bit.ly/2IbjQED (last access: 31 May 2019). 2. TERMIUM PLUS – https://bit.ly/2WiNrpt (last access: 31 May 2019). 3 & 4. SDir – https://bit.ly/2I9lpCZ (last access: 31 May 2019).

OV: Minamata’s disease

S: DTMe (last access: 31 May 2019); GDT – https://bit.ly/2wyE8lS (last access: 31 May 2019).

SYN:
S:

CR: ataxia, blindness, fish, mercury, mercury poisoning.