- Showa Denko
Infobox Company
company_name = Showa Denko K.K.
company_
company_type = Corporation (tyo|4004)
foundation =1 June ,1939
location =Tokyo ,Japan
key_people =Kyohei Takahashi , President & CEO
industry =CAD /CAM Software [http://www.hoovers.com/autodesk/--ID__12689--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml]
products =Chemicals ,Inorganic s,Aluminium ,Electronics
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 15,134 (2005)
homepage = [http://www.sdk.co.jp/html/english/ www.sdk.co.jp]Nihongo|Showa Denko K. K.|昭和電工株式会社|Shōwa Denkō Kabushiki-gaisha is a
Japan ese chemical engineering firm.History
Prior to
World War II it was a part of theMori group of companies as nihongo|"Showa Fertilizer"|昭和肥料|Shōwa Hiryō. It was founded by nihongo|Saburo Suzuki |鈴木三郎助|Suzuki Saburōsuke in the early 1930s, and opened the firstammonium sulfate factory in Japan in April 1931.Controversy
Niigata Minamata disease
The company is known for causing the second outbreak of
Minamata disease (a type of severemercury poisoning ) in Kanose, currently part of Aga-machi,Niigata Prefecture , through the release of organomercury compounds into theAgano River .Tryptophan contamination
In the late 1980s Showa Denko K.K. decided to change the method it used to produce
tryptophan , from fermentation to thegenetic 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 toxicdimerisation tryptophan product which causedEosinophilia-myalgia syndrome . [cite web|url=http://www.holisticmed.com/ge/trypt.html|title=Tryptophan Summary|author=John B. Fagan|date=November 1997|accessdate=2006-10-27]References
External links
*en icon [http://www.sdk.co.jp/html/english/ Showa Denko]
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