61355 The movement of the EU, which has incorporated 70 percent of the European population excluding the former Soviet Union, has a great significance to Japan as well.
61356 We should closely keep an eye on the "navigational skills" of Mr. Santer, the new President of the European Commission.
61357 In the Amazon River Basin of Brazil, which was swept by the excitement of the gold rush, there is a grave concern over the outbreak of "the third incidence of Minamata Disease" caused by the mercury gold diggers discharged into the river.
61358 To disclose the truth, the first International Workshop on the Effects of Mercury in the Amazon River Basin was held in Rio de Janeiro at the end of last year.
61359 We applaud that the National Institute for Minamata Disease of the Environment Agency hosted this conference together with the University of Rio de Janeiro in accordance with the Japan-Brazil Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement.
61360 According to the reports from Brazil, there has been no confirmed case of organic mercury poisoning so far.
61361 However, specialists from twelve countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, China, US, Sweden, and Colombia participated and left the impression that the mercury contaminations due to gold mining or factory effluent have been observed around the world.
61362 Based on the very painful experience of the Minamata Disease over forty some years, it can be said that the level of technology developed by Japan for analyzing the effects of organic mercury on the natural environment and the human body is the highest in the world.
61363 While some may have mixed feelings about such collaborations abroad when patient identification and compensation issues concerning the Minamata Disease are still unresolved at home, Japan's experience in epidemiological surveys and medical care must be made available at all costs to cure mercury poisoning and to keep it from spreading.
61364 The Madeira River, which runs through the suburbs of Porto Velho in the Brazilian state of Rondonia upstream of the Amazon River, has witnessed the gold rush since 1978.
61365 Dreaming of making a quick fortune, garimpeiros or wildcat miners started to use mercury as an agent to separate alluvial gold from the mud in the riverbed.
61366 The amount of mercury dumped in the water, including tributaries such as the Tapajos River and Negro River, at approximately 2,000 sites where gold has been collected is said to be anywhere between 1,800 and 2,000 tons.
61367 It is feared that 55 to 60 percent of the mercury could have been vaporized, bringing the inorganic mercury poisoning to the gold diggers.
61368 There are strong suspicions that 40 to 45 percent of the mercury was dumped into the river, turned from inorganic mercury to organic mercury through the biological reaction with the humic materials in leaf molds and microorganisms, became concentrated and accumulated in fish, and which, in turn, was brought into the bodies of residents along the coast who ate the fish, as was the case with the Minamata Disease in Japan.
61369 According to the studies conducted by the National Institute of Amazon Research and physicians at state hospitals, a dangerous level of mercury exceeding the safety standard defined by the World Health Organization has been found in the hair and blood of gold diggers and fishing people.