Everything about Showa Denko totally explained
is a
Japanese chemical engineering firm.
History
Prior to
World War II it was a part of the
Mori group of companies as . It was founded by in the early 1930s, and opened the first
ammonium sulfate factory in Japan in April
1931.
Controversy
Niigata Minamata disease
second outbreak of
Minamata disease (a type of severe
mercury poisoning) in Kanose, currently part of
Aga-machi,
Niigata Prefecture, through the release of
organomercury compounds into the
Agano River.
Tryptophan contamination
In the late
1980s Showa Denko K.K. decided to change the method it used to produce
tryptophan, from
fermentation to the
genetic engineering of bacteria. Bacteria were engineered to express certain enzymes at much higher levels than normal, and to express other enzymes not normally present in the original bacteria. Because the company had been producing tryptophan for many years via fermentation methods, when production was switched to genetic engineering, no safety testing was deemed necessary. The new tryptophan was placed on the market, and within a few months it caused the deaths of 37 people and caused 1500 more to be permanently disabled. Unfortunately the new tryptophan product was discovered to contain trace amounts of a toxic
dimerisation tryptophan product which caused
Eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Showa Denko'.
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