How Does Mercury Get into Your Body

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From 1932 to 1968 the Chisso Corporation in Minamata, Japan dumped an estimated 27 million tons of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay. In the 1950’s residents of Minamata began showing signs of degenerating nervous systems, including deformities in children, uncontrolled shaking and muscle degeneration. The health problems were ultimately traced to mercury poisoning from eating mercury contaminated fish and other seafood from the Bay. Since then, more than 3,000 people worldwide have been recognized as having “Minamata Disease”

In 1971, thousands of people in Iraq were poisoned by eating barley and wheat grain that had been treated with a methylmercury fungicide. The grain was intended for use as seed grain for planting crops, but was mistakenly distributed as food and was eaten by people. Several hundred deaths were reported.

Mercury poisoning incidents in Iraq Methyl- and ethylmercury poisonings occurred in Iraq following consumption of seed grain that had been treated with fungicides containing these alkylmercury compounds. The first outbreaks were caused by ethylmercury, and occurred in 1956 and 1959-1960, and about 1000 people were adversely affected. The second outbreak was caused by methylmercury and occurred in 1972. The number of people admitted to the hospital from the second outbreak with symptoms of poisoning has been estimated to be approximately 6,500, with 459 fatalities reported. Imported mercury-treated seed grains arrived after the planting season and were subsequently used as grain to make into flour that was baked into bread. Unlike the long-term exposures in Japan, the epidemic of methylmercury poisoning in Iraq was short in duration, but the magnitude of the exposure was high. Because many of the people exposed to methylmercury in this way lived in small villages in very rural areas (and some were nomads), the total number of people exposed to these mercury-contaminated seed grains is not known.