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The insidious and deadly nature of mercury's organometallic compounds is informed by two large scale poisonings due to industrial mercury pollution that occurred decades ago in Minamata and Niigata, Japan. The present study examined chemical speciation for both mercury and selenium in a historic umbilical cord sample from a child born to a mother who lived near the Agano River in Niigata. The mother had experienced mercury exposure leading to more than 50 ppm mercury measured in her hair and was symptomatic 9 years prior to the birth. We sought to determine the mercury and selenium speciation in the child's cord using Hg Lα1 and Se Kα1 high-energy resolution fluorescence detected X-ray absorption spectroscopy, the chemical speciation of mercury was found to be predominantly organometallic and coordinated to a thiolate. The selenium was found to be primarily in an organic form and at levels higher than those of mercury, with no evidence of mercury-selenium chemical species. Our results are consistent with mercury exposure at Niigata being due to exposure to organometallic mercury species., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Graham George reports financial support was provided by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Ingrid Pickering reports financial support was provided by Canada Research Chairs. Ingrid Pickering reports financial support was provided by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Graham George reports financial support was provided by Canada Research Chairs. Graham George reports financial support was provided by New Frontiers in Research Fund. Ingrid Pickering reports financial support was provided by Canada Foundation For Innovation. Gary Myers reports financial support was provided by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

By offering new fantasies, perspectives and representations, artists have the power to make people aware of social issues and inspire them to action. This paper describes how artists can offer a vision of environmental resistance by employing fantasy and using tools of poetic expression for communities affected by environmental destruction. This paper employs a case study methodology to examine the Minamata disease victims’ movement in Japan through the lens of environmental justice. As part of this movement, writer Michiko Ishimure created a fantasy called Mouhitotsu-no-konoyo, based in a mythical world and featuring the moral relationships that the people of Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, had embraced before modernisation. I will show the importance of this fantasy for the movement, analysing it from two perspectives: those of ningenteki-dori (the human principle) and the invisible fantasy about the mythical world. Ishimure’s fantasy offers a moral message to prevent further environmental harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to the minamata disease, which is a neurological disorder caused by the ingestion of methyl mercury.

The methylmercury contamination of Minamata Bay during the WWII postwar period resulted in thousands of Japanese citizens suffering horrific neurological injury. Fear and miscommunication destroyed and changed family and social structure. In addition, the Minamata poisoning caused momentous changes in the civic discourse in Japan and was an instrumental event in the democratization of the country. This manuscript describes the effects that the environmental contamination and human poising had in the transition of Japan from a feudal society to a democratic one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mercury discharged into the sea by the Chisso factory in Minamata, and the radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, are not entirely different "accidents," although one was the result of a "natural disaster" and one not. Minamata offers hints of future developments as Japan attempts to respond to and recover from Fukushima. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]