Apology issued over false lesson on Minamata disease ‘gene'
After repeated government requests, a home tutoring company apologized for wrongly teaching children that Minamata disease, a neurological disorder caused by mercury poisoning, is hereditary.
Trygroup Inc., known for its 'Katei Kyoushi no Try' education service, issued the apology on its website and removed the false information that was presented during an online lecture for junior high school students.
'Minamata-byou Higaisha, Shiensha Renraku Kai,' a group of Minamata disease patients and their supporters, learned about erroneous lecture at the end of April.
The group, saying such false information promotes discrimination against Minamata disease victims, asked the Environment Ministry to take action. The group also sent a request to Trygroup to correct its educational materials.
According to the group, Trygroup's video lecture was for a junior high school history class as part of its 'Try I' service. The topics in the lecture were the four major pollution-caused illnesses in Japan.
'The most horrible aspect of this (Minamata) disease is its hereditary nature,' the lecture said. 'Pregnant women who developed the disease often passed it on to their babies.'
Minamata disease was discovered in the 1950s among residents who consumed marine products tainted with organic mercury discharged from a chemical factory into Minamata Bay, Kumamoto Prefecture.
Babies born with the disease were affected by the mercury while in the wombs of their mothers.
The disease is not passed down through genes.
However, incorrect beliefs about the disease have spread, leading to discrimination against victims of the poisoning and their relatives. Some have been rejected for marriage based only on where they were born.
'There are still patients who suffer from misconceptions and discrimination,' said Ichiro Motoshima, an official of the patients and supporters group. 'The central government should thoroughly educate people to understand the facts.'
The Environment Ministry said it sent a request for a correction to Trygroup on May 14, and the company partly corrected the lecture.
But the ministry deemed that measure was insufficient and had continued contacting Trygroup until it issued the apology for its false lecture.
'There is no fact that Minamata disease is hereditary. We apologize for the incorrect expression and have corrected that part,' the company said on its website on May 23.
The ministry intends to continue seeking an explanation from the company.
Similar false information was also spread earlier this year by the city government of Uki in Kumamoto Prefecture
A calendar that the municipality distributed to all 23,000 households in Uki at the end of February contained a description that could be interpreted as: 'Minamata and Hansen's diseases are infectious.'
The city has since circulated a correction seal for the description to all households and apologized.
Minamata disease is not infectious. But in the initial period after its discovery, the cause of the disease was unknown, leading to the mistaken belief that it could be spread from human to human.
Hansen's disease, more commonly known as leprosy, has an extremely low level of contagiousness.
Currently, it is very rare for a person to become infected with and develop Hansen's disease.
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