Minamata and the GHNet

The Japanese government proposed the final resolution toward the settlement of Minamata disease in 1995. Minamata city and the National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD) have started some projects based on the calamitous hoping that such disasters would never happen anywhere in the world. In order to make the tragic lessons known around the world, scientific and historical stories must be globally available. The Global Health Network (GHNet) was established in 1994 by representatives from academia, WHO, PAHO, the World Bank, NASA, IBM and AT&T. The GHNet is aiming at the telecommunication application into public health and preventive medicine for disease prevention in the 21st century. Employing the concept and components of the GHNet, the NIMD would possibly set an excellent model for Internet backbone biomedical research center, enabling the NIMD to make an international contribution in mercury as well as environmental health. Eight specific plans are proposed as follows: 1) Connectivity and Internet training, 2) Center for mercury poisoning and other environmental health surveillance, 3) Center for distance learning for Minamata Disease, 4) Network of people and organization, 5) Homepage, 6) Limited access server for environmental health, and 7) Training Center of the Internet and environmental health, and 8) Cyber Environmental Docs. This paper as well as the slide presentation are made available on the Internet as a collaborative work between the NIMD and the GHNet (http://www.pitt.edu/~japanese/minamata/) so that people all over the world can reach the document and enjoy the slide show.