June 4, 2012

CBC News

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/06/04/grassy-narrows-mercury.html

Mercury dumping halted in 1970 but symptoms persist

First Nations people from Grassy Narrows, Ont., continue to suffer the effects of mercury poisoning more than 40 years after commercial fishing was closed, a new report shows.

The report, released in English today in Toronto, outlines the long-term effects on people who lived along the Wabigoon-English River system in northwestern Ontario.”Mercury Pollution in First Nations Groups in Ontario, Canada: 35 years of Canadian Minamata Disease” was published in Japanese in the Journal of Minamata Studies in 2011.

Two years ago, Japanese scientists who have been studying the effects of mercury poisoning for over 50 years, returned to Ontario. Their first research visit to the northwest region of the province had been in 1975.

The lead author of the report, Masazumi Harada, began researching the effects of mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan, in 1961. That was also the year that methyl mercury in fish caught in Minamata Bay was identified as the cause of over 100 deaths and many more cases of brain damage in people who ate the fish. The effects of the poisoning became known as Minamata disease.

Mercury poisoning in Japan repeated in Canada

After the Japanese scientists learned of reports of similar symptoms in Canada, their research brought them to the Grassy Narrows and White Dog First Nations in northwestern Ontario.

The mercury originated in the 1960s from a chemical and pulp mill in Dryden, Ont., owned by Reed Paper Co. From there it got into the English-Wabigoon River System and then into the fish.

For the two First Nations, the fish were the main food source and the commercial fishery and related tourism businesses were their main livelihood.

“I remember when my dad and my sister were fishing, and I’d go and help them,” he told CBC’s Jody Porter. “Those were times I really enjoy. I think of them a lot, and they took that away.”Shoon Keewatin, 57, a resident of Grassy Narrows north of Kenora, recalls a happy youth in the area.

The mercury problem was identified in 1969, and in 1970 the government order Reed Paper to stop releasing mercury into the water system and closed the local fishery.

Since then, people have received mixed messages about whether the fish is safe to eat, but many still do

Mercury’s damage continues today

Four decades later, the effects of that mercury – an estimated 9,000 kg – are still present. (The airborne release of mercury by the mill continued until 1975.)

Although lower, the mercury levels in fish continue to be above safe levels and people NEAR DRYDEN, ONT., continue to have the symptoms of Minamata disease — even people born long after the mercury dumping had ended.

The Harada team examined 160 adults from Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong, as White Dog is now named. They found that “a total of 58.7 per cent was affected by mercury” and that “33.7 per cent of the target group would be diagnosed as Minamata Disease patients.”

Demonstrators gather at Queens Park in Toronto in April 2010 to demand compensation for mercury poisoning at Grassy Narrows, Ont., in the 1970s. A new report on the effects of mercury poisoning was released today. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Symptoms observed in at least one third of the people in the target group include: sensory disturbances on the limbs, difficulty walking a straight line, difficulty seeing, visual disturbances, hearing impairment, insomnia, exhaustion, fatigue and numbness in the limbs.

Keewatin doesn’t have to be told. He is losing his sense of balance, his ankles are numb, and he suffers dizzy spells.

“I used to be able to stalk moose. Now I can’t, because every time I go in the bush, I have to grab a stick for balance, and I make lots of noise.”

Keewatin says he’ll be doing his part to seek out help for people who are suffering, and he hopes the new research shows the government compensation package from the 1980s is inadequate.

To him, restoring people’s connection to the land is what matters most.