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Chemicals — Minamata (Japan)

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Environments at Risk

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Abstract

The risk of toxic chemicals catastrophically contaminating our food was realised in the 1950s. The name of the city where it happened is now a synonym for this type of risk: Minamata disease.

“However, we cannot understand why he went out of his way to concern himself with this question, in spite of the fact that he has nothing to do with medicine and biology. His arguments are so crude that we cannot but suspect that he is motivated by some social factors in expressing his view on the question. It is quite natural that none in the medical world paid attention to his assertations.” (Tokuomi 1969)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Department, University of Victoria, V8W 2Y2, Victoria, B. C., Canada

    Prof. Dr. Derek Ellis

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  1. Prof. Dr. Derek Ellis
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ellis, D. (1989). Chemicals — Minamata (Japan). In: Environments at Risk. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74772-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74772-4_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-51180-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74772-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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