The X-Files:The Cause of PD is US!
Is the incidence of Parkinson's and other neurological disorders on the
increase around the world or is that just a perception? If these disorders
are increasing in epidemic proportions, one wonders why. This essay
attempts to put the pieces together as the drawer of the X-Files opens.
Opening Scene:
Mulder, looking older and using a cane is shuffling alongside of Scully, as
they stroll down a tree covered path in the Spring. The grounds are that of
the Brookhaven Medical Center.
Scully: Mulder when did you first discover that you had young onset
Parkinson's?
Mulder: It was when I had the death struggle on the rock pile with the
alien. As I was trying to stick the needle of the green stuff into his neck
I noticed a tremor in my right hand and it was so intense that I lost grip
on the syringe and lost it.
Scully: I thought according to neuroepidemiology studies most Parkinson's
occurs in rural settings. How do you think your's occurred?
Mulder: Before my sister was abducted, we lived in a small rural community
and mom had the nicest garden and Bossy the cow gave the richest milk. We
always had fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden and homemade ice
cream socials.
My father remember worked for the "Smoking Man" doing some kind of research
that he wasn't allow to talk about.
Zoom Out...in the distance the "Smoking Man" is seen behind a tree lighting
another cigarette..wearing a trench coat even though Mulder and Scully were
in shirt sleeves.
Scene II: The "Committee" is having a meeting attended by the "Alien" and
the "Smoking Man".
The "Leader" of the international "Committee" says:
Leader: The time has come to wind down our associations with our "Friends"
and set our operatives up to use the knowledge we have gained from Alamosa,
our cloning, DNA alterations, and permanently close the X-Files.
The "Leader" nods to the "Smoking Man", your President should be told to
open the secret files about human experimentation with ionizing radiation
so that we can develop a market for our technology to repair...at a
price..what we collectively have done. The Russian, the Chinese, the
Frenchman and the Pakistani nod in agreement.
"Smoking Man": It will be done straight away!
http://www.wpi.org/Initiatives/init/oct96/whereare.html
Zoom Out: President Clinton is seen at a press conference announcing the
opening of the records on human subjects used in ionizing radiation
experiments.
Scene III: A researcher is being interviewed as part of the debriefing part
of the opening of the records.
Debriefer: Doctor as part of the testing of nuclear devices wasn't it
suspected that humans coming in contact with the products of a detonation
could be harmed?
Researcher: Well it wasn't really considered that the weather could play
such an important part in increasing the area of contamination. We were
doing it, the Russians were doing it and the Chinese...we had all we could
do to keep up with the "genie" we had unleashed. Even thought later we
would learn that those coming in contact with the products of the blast
would forever be changed...the DNA challenged so much that neurologic
disorders would occur in epidemic proportions 30 and 40 years down the
road..we went ahead. Strontium 90 with a half-life of 29 years, loses its
radioactivity slowly. It is also highly toxic because of its ability to
mimic calcium in the body, becoming part of the bone marrow tissue and
damaging blood-producing cells. It permeates soil and attaches to every
living organism and its offspring eventually reaching man and his offspring.
Scene IV: A epidemiology study is published on mortality in PD finds a
North-South bias with an increased prevalence west of the Mississippi River
in the US. Their findings closely resembled a map released by the National
Cancer Institute.
http://www.parascope.com/articles/1097/falloutfigure1.htm
Closing Scene: Mulder and Scully are in Mulder's apartment. Mulder falls on
his sofa like he has done many times before, his cane comes to rest on the
coffee table. Scully pushes him over and sits beside him.
Scully: Mulder with all this new revelations how do you explain the
increased incidence of Parkinson's disease in the southern hemisphere? Most
of the above ground nuclear testing has been done in the Northern Hemisphere.
Mulder: Scully, we live in a closed environment here on earth, there have
been nuclear tests in the southern Pacific and also in South Africa...those
things have increased the risk in South America and also Australia. Again,
it is the Strontium 90 getting into the food chain and then into man and
the offspring that is causing the gene mutations. Until then it is business
as usual. Scully will you pass me my Sinemet?
Scully: How do you think the "Smoking Man" avoided getting Parkinson's?
Mulder: Smokers since the 60s when the highest concentrations of Strontium
90 were in the atmosphere, have filtered their air through the cigarette
filter by inhaling. Non-smokers draw unfiltered air into their lungs and
mouth. The Japanese on the otherhand wear surgical masks when outdoors so
that protects them.
END
http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1997/nd97/nd97ortmeyer.html
All of the published works on epidemiology through interviews and
examination of death records postulate that some unknown environmental
factor is the cause of Parkinson's and it relates to location, habits and
the environment.
Until recently, the thought has been directed towards exposure to
pesticides or herbicides and by drinking well water indicated that the
respondents lived in a rural setting.
The following are EPA records of Strontium 90 in milk.
Radiation levels in pasteurized milk, 1960-1992
(annual mean exposure, in picocuries per liter)
------------------------------------------------------
Strontium-90 in Cesium-137 in
Year pasteurized milk pasteurized milk
------------------------------------------------------
1960 8.6 18.0
1961 8.0 11.0
1962 13.4 44.0
1963 23.5 108.0
1964 23.8 109.0
1965 17.6 58.0
1966 13.3 29.0
1067 10.2 16.0
1968 8.9 11.0
1969 7.5 9.0
1970 7.3 8.0
1971 6.8 9.0
1972 5.6 6.0
1973 4.4 5.0
1974 4.7 8.0
1975 3.9 9.0
Mov Disord 1990;5(4):322-4
The following observations could account in Russian and Chinese detonations
of nuclear weapons, drifting onto the west coast of Canada, Washington and
Oregon.
Geographic distribution of deaths due to Parkinson's disease in Canada:
1979-1986.
Svenson LW
Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Mortality figures for Parkinson's disease in Canada from 1979 to 1986 were
examined by province and by sex. As seen in other studies, Parkinson's
disease showed a statistically significantly higher prevalence in males
than in females (p less than 0.01). An uneven distribution across provinces
was found when mortality rates were compared by males and when males and
females were grouped together. Females did not show a significant variation
across provinces. Five provinces showed a higher incidence of Parkinson's
disease among males than in females (p less than 0.05), whereas the other
provinces showed no difference.British Columbia and Manitoba showed the
highest rates for males as well as the highest rates when males and females
were grouped together. The uneven geographic distribution of Parkinson's
disease offers support for the possible involvement of environmental
factors in the etiology of some forms of idiopathic Parkinson's disease.
Suggestions for further research are outlined.
PMID: 2259356, UI: 91080887
----------
Neuroepidemiology 1990;9(5):243-7
Parkinsonism death rates by race, sex
and geography: a 1980s update.
Lilienfeld DE, Sekkor D, Simpson S, Perl
DP, Ehland J, Marsh G, Chan E, Godbold JH, Landrigan PJ
Division of
Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Mount Sinai School of
Medicine,
New York, N.Y.
To evaluate temporal changes in the geographic distribution
of Parkinson's
disease (PD) mortality in the United States, we reviewed
death rates for PD in the nine regions of the United States for 1980-1984.
Age-adjusted mortality for all ages and for the elderly (65 years of age
and older) was analyzed.Variation in PD mortality was observed among the
regions for all demographic groups. The patterns were different from those
reported during 1959-1961.Changing geographic patterns in mortality provide
evidence for an environmental etiology for PD.
PMID: 2087248, UI:
91204105
----------
Neurology 1988 Oct;38(10):1558-61
Parkinsonism death rates by race, sex, and geography.
Kurtzke JF, Goldberg ID
Neuroepidemiology Research Program, Veterans Administration Medical Center,
Washington, DC 20422.
Age-adjusted death rates for Parkinson's disease (PD) in the United States
from 1959 to 1961 demonstrated significantly lower rates for blacks than
for whites, with rates for Oriental Americans the same as for whites. All
racial groups showed a male preponderance. Both whites and blacks had a
similar excess of PD death rates for residents of the four northern census
regions of the US over their rates for the three southern regions. Within
each region the sex and race differences remained. Thus, blacks in the US
appear to be "protected" against PD, but they share the north: south
gradient seen for whites. Race, sex, and geography would therefore seem to
be independent risk factors for PD, providing further evidence that this
may then be an acquired, environmental disease.
PMID: 3419598, UI: 88334911
Med Hypotheses 1989 Feb;28(2):75-9
Toxic waste used as fertilizers is taken up in the plants and fruits and
when eaten, pass to the animal or human, challenging the DNA of the host
and resulting in a mutation.
Tomatoes and Parkinson's disease.
Sage JI
Department of Neurology, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New
Brunswick 08903-0019.
Recent developments have focused attention on the possibility that a toxic
environmental factor may be the cause of Parkinson's disease (PD). A
hypothesis seeking to explain the cause of PD must explain its worldwide
distribution, the small percentage of the population affected, geographic
variations in prevalence and why PD was unrecognized prior to the early
nineteenth century. The difficulties in finding a ubiquitous environmental
agent which could account for these observations, may be illustrated by
considering the hypothesis that such an agent may be a constituent of a
common plant such as the tomato. This hypothesis meets all the necessary
prerequisites. It is testable and appears to be an excellent starting point
from which to search for the cause of PD.
PMID: 2927356, UI: 89181271
Can J Neurol Sci 1987 Feb;14(1):36-41
Ecogenetics of Parkinson's disease: prevalence and environmental aspects in
rural areas.
Barbeau A, Roy M, Bernier G, Campanella G, Paris S
We make use of the unique combination of a homogeneous genetic and racial
origin in the rural population of Quebec and the facilities of free and
universal access to medical care, to study the distribution of the
prevalence of Parkinson's disease in the 9 rural hydrographic regions of
the Province. Through 3 different methods of ascertainment, confirmed by
two control probes, we demonstrate that the prevalence of Parkinson's
disease is of uneven distribution within rural areas. We further
investigated the characteristics of the regions of high prevalence. These
regions which are predominantly agricultural and areas of intensive market
gardening were also the areas with the highest use of pesticides.
PMID: 3815163, UI: 87130309
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