W. Eugene Smith already enjoyed well-deserved international recognition in photojournalism and was over fifty when he heard about a strange disease affecting a small Japanese fishing town: Minamata. In 1971, he arrived with his cameras to document the illness affecting its residents. Just one year later, in 1972, LIFE magazine, which then had seven million readers, published Death-Flow from a Pipe with photographs by Smith. The disease was caused by eating fish and shellfish contaminated with methylmercury, which the Chisso factory discharged directly into the sea.
 
Once again, W. Eugene Smith's photographs brought international attention to what had really been happening in Minamata for years.