Conclusions

The victims of Minamata disease offer the following lessons to the world:

1. Industrial pollution causes disease, destroys ecosystems, and produces other types of irreparable damage. This means that complete recovery from industrial pollution is impossible. Accordingly, waste material that is produced as a result of industrial operations must not be dumped into any environmental sink until it is harmless.

2. The world's chemical industry is currently dumping newly created substances whose effects are not fully understood. Because it takes considerable time before the presence and effects of toxic substances can be identified, it is necessary to prevent the spread of pollution at the source.

3. Industrial degradation of the environment produces effects that can spread rapidly. It is, therefore, necessary to monitor the effect of pollutants and measure the damage, otherwise relief of victims and restoration of the environment will be delayed.

4. When a local community has no control over business operations that affect its environment, the possibility exists that the environment will be destroyed.

5. Any business that destroys the environment must bear the responsibility of making reparations to the victims and making good the environmental destruction.