Episode 3 - The Fault In The Food

A Lifesaving Shipment of Grain Turns Deadly

The only available image of a bag of grain from the 1971 Iraq poison grain catastrophe. The government suppressed images like this. Source: Wikimedia.

The only available image of a bag of grain from the 1971 Iraq poison grain catastrophe. The government suppressed images like this. Source: Wikimedia.

In the summer of 1971, the Middle East was hit with a devastating drought. In an effort to provide its people with food, the Iraqi government purchased 95,000 tonnes of grain from North America. Despite the good intentions, this grain would injure over 6,000 people and kill 459 officially, while more realistic estimates put the casualties at ten times those numbers.

The grain that proved so deadly to Iraqi families wasn’t meant to be eaten at all. A special coating applied to the grain was intended to protect it from rot while in transit. The coating was safe for grain that would be planted, but toxic if used to make bread, or feed animals. Governments around the world were aware of this risk, but in 1971 few had actually passed legislation to prevent the kind of poisoning that scarred Iraq forever.

INTERESTING INFORMATION

Bulletin of the World Health Organization - Poisoning caused by the consumption of organomercury-dressed seed in Iraq

NY Times article on the Iraq poisoning - Click here to open

Minamata Disease Museum website - minamatadiseasemuseum.net

Early NY Times article on Huckleby Mercury Poisoning - Mercury in Food: A Family Tragedy

Follow-up NY Times article on the Juckleby Family - New Mexico Family Wins Settlement In Suit on Children’s Mercury Blinding

MEDIA

*Note - Media on this catastrophe is difficult to find, as the Iraqi government actively suppressed images. There is a good amount of video and photographic documentation of the impacts of Minamata Disease available online.

Video of cat with “Dancing Cat Fever'“ - Click here to watch

Link to a blog that features Ernestine Huckleby and the powerful National Geographic photograph of her taken by James P. Blair - Who Remembers Ernestine Huckleby?

SOURCES

What Happened During The 1971 Iraq Poison Grain Disaster - WorldAtlas.com

Methylmercury poisoning in Iraq. An epidemiological study of the 1971-1972 outbreak - Greenwood, Michael R. - Journal of Applied Toxicology

Iraq’s Secret Environmental Disasters - Jernelov, Arne - Project Syndicate

Mercury rising: Niigata struggles to bury its Minamata ghosts - Gilhooly, Rob - Japan Times

Episode 2 - Mulholland's Mistake

The Greatest Engineering Failure of the 20th Century

William Mulholland (L) and Havery Van Norman (R) viewing the aftermath of the St. Francis Dam collapse. The “tombstone,” the only piece of the dam left standing after the collapse, appears behind them. Image via waterandpower.org.

William Mulholland (L) and Havery Van Norman (R) viewing the aftermath of the St. Francis Dam collapse. The “tombstone,” the only piece of the dam left standing after the collapse, appears behind them. Image via waterandpower.org.

William Mulholland was an almost legendary figure in American engineering, with a career spanning 40-plus years. He was responsible for bringing water to the thirsty young metropolis of Los Angeles.

When he built his second concrete gravity dam, however, he overstepped his own knowledge. The collapse of the St. Francis Dam killed at least 411 people, with many still unidentified to this day. When the dam burst, nearly 12.5 billion gallons of water raced from the mountains above present-day Santa Clarita over 50 miles to the Pacific Ocean, destroying everything - and everyone - in the way.

Interesting Information

The Coroner’s Inquest - Click here to open

Ann Stansell’s Updated List of St. Francis Dam Disaster Victims - Click here to open

Archaeology Graduate Ann C. Stansell’s Thesis - Memorialization and memory of Southern California’s St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928

Images

All images from SCVHistory.com or waterandpower.org

Sources

SCVHistory.com - Online Archives & Repository of the SCV Historical Society, City of Santa Clarita, Friends of Mentryville, Old Town Newhall, More

Mapping the St. Francis Dam Outburst Flood with Geographic Information Systems - J. David Rogers, Kevin James

The Flood: St. Francis Dam Disaster, William Mulholland, and the Casualties of L.A. Imperialism - KCET

St. Francis Dam Disaster - Water and Power Associates

Lesson Learned: Concrete gravity dams should be evaluated to accommodate full uplift - damfailures.org

Privilege and responsibility: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam disaster - Donald C. Jackson, Norris Hundley Jr.