Within the past 2 years, the Trump administration has made several alarming changes to environmental regulations under the guise of “encouraging economic development”. Car emissions standards have been rolled back to “make American cars more affordable”, and research studies regarding the health effects of living near mountaintop mining operations were halted in August 2017. Trump regularly calls regulations “burdensome”, “job-killing”, and “costly and unnecessary”, but we need only look at the case of Minamata Bay, Japan to see that cutting regulations for the sake of economic growth only leads to economic losses in the end- and, more importantly, an increase in unnecessary suffering of animals and humans.
After World War II, Japan was desperately trying to recover from the devastating economic and physical damage the country had undergone. With most of its farmland ravaged and many of its cities still in the process of rebuilding, Japan’s economy leaned heavily on factories and chemical production companies—companies such as the Chisso Corporation. The Chisso Corporation had a chemical plant in Minamata that chiefly produced acetaldehyde, an extremely versatile chemical used in the production of acetic acid and several plastics.
In order to maximize profits, the Chisso corporation released its untreated wastewater directly into a river running into Minamata Bay. Among other chemicals, this wastewater contained methylmercury—an organic mercury that we now know to be a potent neurotoxin. Through bioaccumulation and biomagnification, the fish in the bay became heavily contaminated with methylmercury, which they passed on to anything or anyone unlucky enough to eat them.
In the early 1950s, residents in Minamata began to notice an unusual amount of dead crows, and cats with a strange, “dancing” gait. People were also starting to experience similar symptoms—including numbness and loss of control of the extremities, constriction of vision, and even death. Children were being born with a “strange disease” similar to cerebral palsy. In 1957, researchers at Kumamoto University linked the “dancing cats” directly to consumption of Minamata Bay fish. Chisso Corporation scientists had come to the same conclusion in their own clandestine experiments, but publicly refuted the theory for fear of being shut down. Not wanting to lose a major economic force in the area, the prefectural and national government did not intervene or conduct any investigations of their own.
Instead of self-regulating, the Chisso Corporation did what any profitable company would do and attempted to cover themselves. They encouraged other research facilities to come up with alternate explanations to Kumamoto University’s theory, explanations that just so happened to absolve Chisso Corporation of any possible blame.
As Chisso Corporation’s profits grew, so did the suffering of the fishing families in the Minamata area. While visiting Minamata’s museum dedicated to Minamata disease, we listened to the story of 91 year old Eiko Ueno.
In 1958, Ueno-san was the young wife of a fisherman expecting her first child. Although other people in the area had started to experience symptoms of Minamata disease, her immediate family seemed to be unaffected for a time—until her husband, Tadashi, suddenly developed symptoms and passed away within a matter of days. Six days after her husband’s funeral, she gave birth to a daughter, Ryoko. At first, Ryoko seemed to be a normal, healthy baby, but as she grew older, it became clear that she was suffering from the “mystery disease” that would later become known as fetal Minamata disease. Sadly, Ryoko only lived to be three years old.
Despite the language barrier, there were tears in my eyes as I listened to her story. Even 60 years later and after telling her story hundreds of times, Ueno-san’s pain was just as vivid and fresh as if it had happened yesterday. No amount of economic growth is worth what Eiko Ueno and so many others like her went through. And for those who don’t care about such things as the plight of other human beings, what happened in Minamata proves that cutting regulations isn’t economically viable in the long term, either. The permanent disabilities caused by Minamata disease and similar pollution diseases not only increased healthcare spending, but reduced the number of available workers in the economy. And while companies may start out making huge profits from cutting corners, lawsuits and settlements have a way of draining corporations—and state budgets—dry. In the long term, strict regulatory standards are good for the entire community, including businesses that may find them restrictive at first.