Ocean Newsletter

No.66 May 5, 2003

  • Mineral Resources at Sea - The ocean is the womb of life - Mieko Kimura
    Director, Takeda Research Institute of Life Science & Preventive Medicine
  • Possible contribution of the synthetic detergent in windshield-washer fluid of automobiles to ocean pollution Akihiro Moriyoshi
    Professor of Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Graduate School of Engineering
  • Toward establishment of an open-air museum at the Uraga Docks - The significance of a hands-on dockyard museum and technical education - Kunio Wakamura
    Vice-Chairman, Committee for the Foundation of an Uraga Docks Open-air Museum Professor, Okayama University of Science Trustee, Japan Industrial Archeology Society

Mineral Resources at Sea - The ocean is the womb of life -

The earth's surface holds an estimated 1.4 trillion liters of water, but only 0.01% of that amount is suitable for human use. Yet every year that usable water becomes more and more polluted and water shortages are mounting. We will soon have to look at ways of harnessing ocean water. Unsurprisingly, since all life originated in the sea, the balance of minerals in the fluids of the human body correlates strongly with the concentration in the oceans. The sea, as the mother of all life, holds enormous significance for human health.

The sea as the mother of life

Water accounts for 85% of a living organism. A cell, which is the basic unit of a living organism, is full of water. The amount of water contained in cells indicates their youthfulness, vigor and life. Babies' skin is fresh and youthful, and as one becomes older, the amount of water in cells diminishes and the cells age. Life exists with water, and the plentiful existence of water proves that one is alive. Well then, do we need only water? Water exists as a solvent for body fluids, which control life, and body fluids constantly preserve a balance between numerous nutritional components including minerals, and serve as the fountain of life support.
It is said that in the universe, is it only the earth that has an abundance of water? The amount of water on earth is estimated at 1.4 billion kiloliters, of which fresh water accounts for 2.5%, and even that takes the shape of ice in polar regions so that the amount of usable water does not exceed 0.01%. Water accounts for 71% of the earth's surface, and 97.5% of that amount is seawater. Scarce surface water is steadily being contaminated by us, and is becoming insufficient. The population of the earth is continuing to increase in developing countries and demand for drinking water and agricultural/industrial water is also steadily growing. The amount of water available to one person was 16,800 m3 in 1950 and dropped to 6,800 m3 in 2000 so that we have entered the 21st century as an era of water shortages. Water shortages also mean a crisis for life support.
Furthermore, and because resources available to people on earth are being exhausted, we should now consider using seawater, which exists abundantly on earth and that has been largely unaffected by pollution, as a new resource. With attention on seawater as the mother of life, I would like to take a look at our health from the standpoint of preventive medicine.

What is health?

In order to find the meaning of health, I looked the word up in a dictionary. It is defined as: a body without anything wrong; a healthy body and; the condition of being sound in mind and body allowing the full exercise of one's physical, mental and social abilities.
You cannot think of health without thinking of medicine, and in Japan, medicine mostly means curative medicine and clinical medicine. Japanese people used to take an interest in their health after their symptoms became visible. Once one falls ill, it is impossible to restore the original state of health. In order to restore the health of a person whose health has been ruined, the interest of medical researchers' has been directed not to people's familiar health problems, but to artificial internal organs and human cloning. With the advent of the ageing society, and as we stand on the verge of the failure of medical insurance, health is now finally attracting attention from the standpoint of preventive medicine. Even from within the field, nutrition as a form of preventive medicine has been attracting a lot of interest from many people. To maintain and promote health, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is advocating paying attention to "nutrition, exercise and rest" in our daily lives under its slogan "Health Japan 21."

Mineral Resources at Sea

Each cell that forms our body is sustained and activated by the replenishment of nutrients, and it is the vitality of these individual cells to which our physical health, sprightly actions and brain function are related. It goes without saying that these nutrients contain the three major nutrients of protein, fat and carbohydrate, and an extremely small amount of vitamins and minerals. These nutrients continually maintain a close interrelationship in a solvent called body fluids, and highlight the functions of cells and living organisms. Body fluids always keep certain mineral balances through homeostatic mechanisms. The constituent parts of water as body fluids, mineral nourishment as the basis of balanced body fluids, and minerals and vitamins as metabolic control factors for the three major nutrients exist in extremely small quantities, but they play a more significant role in comparison with the three major nutrients.
Incidentally, the following 22 nutrients have been proven to be essential for mammals: Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca), Phosphorus (P), Silicon (Si), Vanadium (V), Chromium (Cr), Manganese (Mn), Iron (F), Cobalt (Co), Nickel (Ni), Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Arsenic (As), Selenium (Se), Molybdenum (Mo), Tin (Sn), Iodine (I), Lead (Pb), Fluorine (F) and Rubidium (Rb). The following nutrients are considered probably essential, but have not been proven to be essential: Lithium (Li), Beryllium (Be), Boron (B), Aluminum (Al), Germanium (Ge), Bromine (Br), Strontium (Sr), Silver (Ag), Cadmium (Cd), Antimony (Sb), Cesium (Cs), Barium (Ba), Tungsten (W), Gold (Au) and Mercury (Hg).
In food, there are also a number of constituents that have not been proven to be essential as nutrients through modern scientific approaches. Fresh food provides comprehensive nutrient environments, including unknown nutrients, for our bodies and living organisms. As we all know, organic matter, which is the origin of nutrition for living beings, is produced from water and minerals which plants absorb from soil and sunlight. Organic matter gives life to us and other animals. We realize again that water is the root of all life, and that the source of the fountain of life is the nutrients and minerals that are abundant in water. The composition of minerals in surface water varies greatly from region to region, but the composition of minerals in seawater is uniform, and about 85 kinds of minerals have been found. As shown in the chart, it can be seen that the concentration distribution of minerals in seawater is positively correlated with the mineral balance in human body fluids (serums). As it is said that the origin of species is seawater, amniotic fluids in people must be seawater. Before we are born, we live floating in the amniotic fluids of our mothers' wombs. When we leave our mothers' wombs, we leave water for the first time. It is thought that the origin of species (cells) is seawater, and that living things acquired gills and lungs and came ashore because seawater gradually became concentrated, in other words, the density of seawater became greater than that of body fluids (about four times the density of human serums), and thus it became difficult to live in seawater.
Still, seawater is the origin of our life. We need a great amount of manure when we produce something on land, but both plants and animals grow rapidly in the sea without manure or feed because the sea contains nitrogen, carbon and an abundance of trace elements. A host of problems were left in the 20th century, the era of petroleum resources. Now that we do not have any new resources in the 21st century, it is surely very important to reexamine "seawater" as a resource for the water for life.

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