ENVIRONMENTAL TRAGEDIES

MINAMATA DISEASE

Considered one of the four major pollution diseases in the history of Japan,

Minamata is caused by severe mercury poisoning that attacks the

nervous system. In 1956, Chisso Corporation’s industrial wastewater

containing methylmercury was released into Minamata Bay and the

Shiranui Sea; 2,265 fatalities are recognized as a direct

consequence to this polluting even.

THE SEVESO DISASTER

In July of 1976, an explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant north of

Milan, Italy released Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) into the

atmosphere adversely affecting the nearby town of Seveso. Shortly

thereafter 3,300 animals died and many more were put down in order to

prevent the spread of contamination into the food chain. Children were

hospitalized with skin inflammation and nearly 500 people were found

to have skin lesions.

E-WASTE IN GUIYU, CHINA

Guiyu, China is the location of what may be the largest electronic waste 

(e-waste) site on earth. As a result 88% of the children in the area suffer

from lead poisoning and there is more than the average rate of miscarriages.

Consequently, the province is sadly referred to as the “electronic graveyard”.

BAIA MARE CYANIDE SPILL

After the Chernobyl incident in Russia, this cyanide spill in Baia Mare,

Romania is aptly called the worst environmental disaster in Europe.

On January 30, 2000, 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated

water leaked out from a dam, spewing out 100 tonnes of cyanide.  

An incredible amount of fish and aquatic plants were killed and up to

100 people were hospitalized after eating contaminated fish.

THE SHRINKING OF THE ARAL SEA

Dubbed as “one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters”, 10% of Aral

sea’s 68,000 square kilometres has disappeared due to the diversion of rivers

for irrigation. That percentage that was once a part of the fourth largest

inland body of water is now a plain of highly saline soil with depleting marine life.

THE BHOPAL DISASTER

Known as the world’s worst industrial disaster, more than half a million

people were exposed to methyl isocyanate gas and other toxic

chemicals in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India on the night of December 2-3,

1984. The Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant’s leak of the

poisonous gas claimed 2,259 casualties.

THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR EXPLOSION

Being one out of two accidents classified as level 7 on the International

Nuclear Event Scale, Chernobyl is known as the worst nuclear power

plant incident in history. Cancers, deformities and other long term

illnesses were the scars of not only human inhabitants but

of animals as well.

THE GREAT SMOG OF ’52

Thousands died and a hundred thousand fell ill because of a blanket of

smog that covered London for 5 days in 1952. Cold weather, combined

with windless conditions collected airborne pollutants from the use of coal

to form a thick layer of smog over the city. Recent research showed that

12,000 premature deaths can be attributed to this smog.