An appraisal of the judgements of the Kumamoto Minamata Disease Certification Commission from May 1981 to July 1992 for applicants from December 1975 to April 1981

Abstract

The differences of the diagnosis from December 1975 to April 1981 and from May 1981 to July 1992 of the Committee on Certification of Minamata Disease based on the medical records of 3,870 applicants who had been examined from December 1975 to April 1981 by the Committee were compared and analyzed from a statistical point of view. Three hundred forty inhabitants from December 1975 to April 1981 and two hundred ninety eight inhabitants from May 1981 to July 1992, in total six hundred and thirty eight inhabitants, were certified to have Minamata disease by the Committee on Certification of Minamata Disease. One hundred and eleven inhabitants who were judged likely to have Minamata disease by application of the present criteria presented by the Japanese Environmental Agency in 1977 were certified by the committee from May 1981 to July 1992, and one hundred and thirty three inhabitants who were judged not likely to have Minamata disease by application of the present criteria were certified from May 1981 to July 1992. The author concluded that certification of the patients of Minamata disease by the Committee was inconsistent with the results of applying the present criteria to the data and that the prevalence of the symptoms of the inhabitants certified from December 1975 to April 1981 was inconsistent with that from May 1981 to July 1992.