24 / 116
2 4
E L E CT R I C AL CONNE CT I ON
S P R I NG 2 01 5
MERCURY DISPOSAL
Name your poison
W
hen the cats in Minamata
Bay, Japan started behaving
strangely in the early ‘50s, no-
one could explain why. The peculiar way
they staggered, writhed and screeched
as if demonically possessed was dubbed
Dancing Cat Fever. Then, in 1956, the
human population of the quiet sea-side
town began presenting with symptoms
of the mysterious condition. Those afflicted
would suffer a narrowed field of vision,
muscle weakness, a loss fine motor skills
and their voice would change pitch. More
often than not this would be followed
by violent convulsions, insanity and
ultimately death.
Because cases were confined to
Minamata, the affliction was at first
thought to be highly contagious. It wasn’t
until researchers from a neighbouring
university discovered that cases were
clustered around fishing hamlets that
it was attributed to a kind of food
poisoning caused from eating fish and
shellfish caught in the bay. Upon further
investigation it was found that the disease
was actually heavy metal poisoning
brought about by the gradual build-up
of mercury in the bay’s sea life and its
subsequent ingestion by the local
population.
The build-up was directly
attributed to the actions of the
Chisso Corporation. It had been
operating a chemical plant
in Minamata since the 1930s
and dumped its wastewater
(containing methyl mercury)
straight into the bay.
According to
Toxic Effects of
Mercury
by Shabnum Nabi, by
March 2001 2,265 people had
been recognised as suffering
Minamata Disease, (1,784 of which
had died). By 2004, the Chisso
Corporation had paid $86 million in
compensation and was ordered to
clean up the contamination.
On 19 January 2013, a global
treaty, aptly named the Minamata
Convention on Mercury, was agreed
upon in Geneva and to date 128 countries
(including Australia) have signed it. The
convention draws attention to mercury
and its still prevalent use in many common
products and processes including compact
fluorescent lamps (CFLs), fluorescent tubes
and high intensity discharge (HID) lamps.
Although these lamps only contain small
amounts of mercury, problems arise when
they are disposed of in landfill. Over time
the mercury leaches out of the lamps,
through the landfill and into the water
table, eventually entering rivers, lakes
and waterways.
The Convention includes provisions
regarding the management of waste
containing mercury, which will include
disposal of lamps containing mercury in
landfill. These provisions are aligned with
work that has been undertaken by the
Basel Convention which addresses the
treatment and movement of hazardous
wastes. Australia has been a ratified
Party to the Basel Convention for over
15 years. The introduction of the Minamata
Convention could result in additional
domestic regulatory action on the
management of mercury waste, and with
this in mind changes in the electrical
contracting sector could be made.
For about the last 10 years there have
been several voluntary lamp recycling
programs in operation, and for the past five
years these have been supported by the
Federal Government’s FlouroCycle scheme.
The scheme encourages businesses,
agencies and organisations
to join the program and recycle their
used lamps and receive public recognition
for doing so.
Energy saving initiatives such as the
Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (VEET)
Events that took place in a
sleepy Japanese town in the
1950s provide a stark reminder
of the consequences of
ignorance when it comes to
the safe disposal of mercury.
Jacob Harris
explains.