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Brownfields. What are they?
Brownfields are areas of land that are reused, redeveloped, or expanded but have an issue with the presence of hazardous subtances or contaminants. -
The Begining
It all stared on the southern coast of Kyushu, Japan in the 1930s. The Chisso Coropation (The Japenese Chemical Company) began to produce acetaldehyde which is used to make plastics. Mercury was produced through this new manufacture and began to contaminate everything; the air, the water, the soil. But because you cannot see it, noone knew about until 20 years later. -
How it pushed its way into the food chain.
During those 20 years it joined to make methyl mercury chloride, which can enter the food chain because it is an organic compound. As it entered the water fish soon got poisoned by this toxin by consuming it. Shellfish along with others were basically consumed of it, and by people eating these fish were consuming it as well. -
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The Poisoning of Minamata
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Fish began to float, cats began to fall.
Around 1952 fish began to float to the top of the waters, as their insides were infected with mercury. Cats began to eat these fish that floated onto the shores and bays and that's where it began to escalated. Cats would fall into the sea, dying. Their bodies would "dance" in the streets and collapse, dead. They had no control over their bodies anymore once the mercury hit the nervous system. -
The epididemic broke out.
Around the same time similar behavior began to appear in humans which left people with confustion and fear. They would have difficulty walking, writing, hearing, swallowing, and tremble uncontrollably. People even had trouble buttoning their buttons on their sweater. Heck, some people couldn't even control their bodies, they would become partly paralyzed and fall randomly. -
Research discoveries
By the early 1957s and late 1956 scientists finally identified the disease as heavy-metal poisoning by eating the fish at minamata bay. Around 70% percent of Minamatas poplulation decline from its peak in 1960.
