Much could be learned from the Ashio, Japan, mining and smelting operation concerning the effects of copper poison ing on human beings, rice paddy soils, and the environment, including the comparison of long term costs and short term profits.

Copper has been mined in Japan since A.D. 709, and pollution has been reported since the sixteenth century. Copper leached from the Ashio Mine pit and tailings flowed into the Watarase River killing fish and contaminating rice paddy soils in the mountains of central Honshu. The refining process also released large quantities of sulfur oxide and other waste gases, which killed the vegetation and life in the surrounding streams. In 1790 protests by local farmers forced the mine to close, but it became the property of the government and was reopened to increase the wealth of Japan after Emperor Meiji came to power in 1869. The mine passed into...