What is Minamata disease?
What causes this disease?
What is mercury?
What is meant by "heavy metal"?
How does mercury get inside fish?
How much mercury can accumulate inside fish flesh?
What is the food chain?
What is biomagnification?
Where is Minamata?
Where is Minamata Bay?
What incident occurred at Minamata Bay that led to the disease?
What is the effect of heavy metal poisoning?
What are synonyms of Minamata disease?
Fish and shellfish have a natural tendency to concentrate mercury in their bodies, often in the form of methylmercury, a highly toxic organic compound of mercury. Species of fish that are high on the food chain, such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, albacore tuna, and tilefish contain higher concentrations of mercury than others. This is because mercury is stored in the muscle tissues of fish, and when a predatory fish eats another fish, it assumes the entire body burden of mercury in the consumed fish. Since fish are less efficient at depurating than accumulating methylmercury, fish-tissue concentrations increase over time. Thus species that are high on the food chain amass body burdens of mercury that can be ten times higher than the species they consume. This process is called biomagnification. The first occurrence of widespread mercury poisoning in humans occurred this way in Minamata, Japan, now called Minamata disease. - Wikipedia.
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