briefed by Jule Klotter

Mercury Crosses Blood-Brain Barrier

The blood-brain membrane barrier prevents many toxins in circulating blood from infiltrating the brain and cerebrospinal fluid, but it does not prevent heavy metals from entering the brain via sensory nerves. Researchers at the Maurice Lamontagne Institute (Burlington, Ontario, Canada) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences added mercury to a water tank that housed a group of brown trout and rainbow trout. A second group of trout, in mercury-free water, were injected with mercury solutions. Using whole-body autoradiography, the researchers found that the fish in the contaminated water showed an accumulation of mercury in brain areas that are linked to sensory nerves, nerves which have direct contact with the water. No mercury was found in the brains of fish who received the injections. Previous experiments with rodents found that manganese, cadmium, and mercury can travel from the nose and mouth to the brain via olfactory nerves.

Claude Rouleau, PhD, at Canada's National Water Research Institute (Burlington, Ontario), the study's primary investigator, said: “The fact that mercury is transported along fish nerves can be extrapolated to humans, as nerve transport also occurs in mammals, including humans....Thus, mercury and other toxins could possibly accumulate in human brains via nerve transport.” This report was published in Environmental Science and Technology (October 1, 1999;33), a peer-reviewed publication of the American Chemical Society.

"Mercury's Scary Migration" Environment News Service, 10 September 1999

"Mercury reaches brain directly through nerves" www.reutershealth.com, September 21, 1999.

Chemical Contamination & Human Detoxification

At the International Conference on Chemical Contamination and Human Detoxification, (December 1-2, 1995, Los Angeles, California), many presenters reported benefits from using L. Ron Hubbard's detoxification procedure to eliminate chemicals and drugs from body tissues. The procedure outlined in Hubbard's book, Clear Body, Clear Mind (Bridge Publications, 1990) has been used throughout the world to treat drug addiction in Narconon programs. According to conference presenters, it has also been successfully used to treat people who were exposed to toxic chemicals and to radiation.

Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education (FASE), one of the conference sponsors, published edited transcripts of keynote addresses. In one of these, Russian medical doctor Vladimir Ivanov reported his frustration in treating drug addiction with psychoactive drugs. In April 1986, he was exposed to high levels of radiation while treating people a day-and-a-half after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Due to radiation poisoning, Ivanov developed heart trouble requiring medication, along with other physical and mental difficulties. In 1990, friends arranged for him to have a heart operation in Boston. Before he had the operation, however, Ivanov learned about Hubbard's detoxification program. He underwent treatment in Los Angeles for 32 days. His health returned; he no longer needs medication (or an operation) for his heart. His experience led him to open a Narconon Center in Russia.

In the US, Hubbard's detoxification program has also been used effectively to treat chemically exposed workers. One presentation referred to 14 firefighters who were exposed to "some of the highest levels of dioxins and dibenzofurans ever recorded in America" during a fire and explosion. The 14 firefighters were given neuropsychometric tests (measuring factors such as reaction-time, memory, body balance, dexterity, etc.) before and after detoxification. After detoxification, the 14 firefighters showed "...significant improvements in nerve function.... Symptoms in the exposed group were also greatly reduced and 13 of the 14 firefighters were able to return to work. (The 14th was unable to return due to hearing loss caused by the transformer explosion.)" This study was published as "Neurobehavioral Dysfunction in Firemen Exposed to Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs): Possible Improvement after Detoxification" (Archives of Environmental Health, Vol. 44, No. 6, 1989.)

David Root, MD, MPh, a Board-Certified Occupational Medicine specialist, has supervised the detoxification of over 2,000 people who were exposed to toxic chemicals. According to the FASE publication, Root has been a co-investigator in several published studies on the use of Hubbard's detoxification program in treating workplace chemical exposure. The program's effectiveness has led to court rulings, including a review by California's Supreme Court, that “established it as a compensable form of treatment under Worker's Compensation law.”

Hubbard's program includes niacin to stimulate lipid mobilization; moderate aerobic exercise to increase circulation; intermittent sauna (140 to 180 degrees) with frequent showers to remove toxins; ingestion of cold-pressed oils to provide a clean replacement for the toxic lipids being excreted; vitamin and mineral supplementation to correct deficiencies and to replace those lost due to increased sweating; adequate liquids to aid elimination and compensate for fluid lost in sweating; a diet that includes plenty of fresh vegetables; and plenty of rest. FASE's appendix to the edited conference transcripts counsels: "This program is designed to mobilize and eliminate fat-stored chemicals. During any such program in which xenobiotics are deliberately mobilized from fat stores, it is important that elimination keep pace with this mobilization process.”

"FASE Research Report - The International Conference on Chemical Contamination and Human Detoxification" Copyright 1996 by Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education, (fasenet@aol.com)

MCS and Muscle Weakness

Verifiable physiological symptoms in people with multiple chemical sensitivities have been studied since the 1960s. In an article for Our Toxic Times, the late Cindy Duehring summarized a 1966 double-blind study by Eloise W. Kailin, MD and Alicia Hasting, MD. In "Electromyographic Evidence of DDT-lnduced Myasthenia" [Medical Annals of the District of Columbia 35(5):237-245 (1966)], the researchers used electromyography (EMG) to document muscular weakness, after exposure to low concentrations of DDT in people identified as having chemical sensitivity, via single-blind challenge testing after a period of avoidance. At the time of the study, the pesticide DDT was considered "a safe and convenient marvel of modern living" (Duehring's words), used in agriculture and in households.

In this study, subjects were exposed to either a highly diluted solution of DDT (undetectable by odor) or by the diluent, which acted as the control. The solutions were code-labeled so that neither the subjects nor the medical personnel who were involved in the testing knew which substances contained the DDT. Electromyographic readings were taken before the subjects were exposed to the solutions. The solutions, placed in 1.0 ml glass syringes, were held 1 to 2 inches below the patient's nose for 2 minutes. The authors found that EMG measurements showed a decrease in the electrical energy generated by voluntary contraction after exposure to DDT, when compared to the baseline and to control solution measurements. The authors reported: “In most tests subjective and EMG changes occurred simultaneously after about 6 minutes of infranasal exposure. Recovery to near baseline levels then was observed in 30 to 60 minutes following withdrawal of the airborne stimulus. However, twice we have observed a delay in EMG response.”

Kailin and Hasting noted that DDT-sensitive people reacted to other fat-soluble substances, including gas stoves, automobile exhaust, raw gasoline, plastics, perfumes, turpentine, kerosene, ammonia, and chlorine. Muscle weakness, difficulties swallowing (dysphagia), muscular incoordination (ataxia), dimming of vision, drowsiness, slowed thought and motor activity, dysphasia, and problems with concentration and memory were common responses to exposure. The researchers noted that "[a]nxiety and emotional depression also occur, possibly as a reaction to the other disabilities.”

Because the trigger substances tend to be fat soluble, the authors suggested that these chemicals may disrupt lysosomes: "We know that lipid membranes in the interior of all cells separate and regulate the functions of organelles in the interior of all cells in the body. One organelle which contains highly acidic enzymes, the lysosome, is known be disrupted not only by many toxic and hormonal stimuli, but also by antigen-antibody complexes and by hydrocarbon carcinogens. This then may well be the weakened link.”

"Electromyographic Evidence of Muscle Weakness in Double-Blind MCS Challenge Testing" by Cindy Duehring. Our Toxic Times, January 1995.

MCS and SPECT Scans

Howard Hu, MD, MPH, ScD and colleagues in Massachusetts performed a study that used single photon computed tomography of the brain (SPECT) to identify differences in brain function in people with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and good health. The research subjects included 27 patients who had been diagnosed as having MCS by board-certified occupational/environmental medicine physicians, and 27 healthy volunteers of the same age and sex. The research team also used, as a 'disease control,' SPECT data from 19 patients who had met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition for chronic fatigue syndrome. Many symptoms found in MCS, especially extreme fatigue and mental dysfunctions, are also symptoms of CFS.

According to the SPECT scans, the MCS patients showed less global perfusion (i.e. an overall measure of brain circulation) than the normal controls. CFS patients' global perfusion was also less than normal, but it was greater than that found in MCS sufferers. In his report, Hu identified "the most influential factors for distinguishing MCS cases from normal controls were globally reduced perfusion, enlarged lateral ventricles, and reductions in frontal perfusion in the anterior cingulate regions." CFS patients showed a reduction in the posterior hemispheric regions, when compared to the normal controls. Hu says that more studies are needed to verify these findings and to determine whether the MCS brain abnormalities noted in this study are specific to MCS and can, thereby, become a means of identifying MCS. SPECT might also be used to measure changes in brain functions that occur during MCS reactions.

"SPECT Scans and MCS" by Howard Hu, MD, MPH, ScD. Summary of a presentation.

Plastic Wrap Toxins

As a seventh grade student, Claire Nelson learned that di(ethylhexyl) adepate (DEHA), considered a carcinogen, is found in plastic wrap. She also learned that the FDA had never studied the effect of microwave cooking on plastic-wrapped food. Claire began to wonder: "Can cancer-causing particles seep into food covered with household plastic wrap while it is being microwaved?”

Three years later, with encouragement from her high school science teacher, Claire set out to test what the FDA had not. Although she had an idea for studying the effect of microwave radiation on plastic-wrapped food, she did not have the equipment. Eventually, Jon Wilkes at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Arkansas, agreed to help her. The research center, which is affiliated with the FDA, let her use its facilities to perform her experiments, which involved microwaving plastic wrap in virgin olive oil.

Claire tested four different plastic wraps and “found not just the carcinogens but also xenoestrogen was migrating [into the oil]….” Xenoestrogens are linked to low sperm counts in men and to breast cancer in women. Throughout her junior and senior years, Claire made a couple of trips each week to the research center, which was 25 miles from her home, to work on her experiment. An article in Options reported that "[h]er analysis found that DEHA was migrating into the oil at between 200 parts and 500 parts per million. The FDA standard is 0.05 parts per billion." Her summarized results have been published in science journals. Claire Nelson received the American Chemical Society's top science prize for students during her junior year and fourth place at the International Science and Engineering Fair (Fort Worth, Texas) as a senior.

"Carcinogens – At 10,000,000 Times FDA Limits" Options May 2000. Published by People Against Cancer, 515-972-4444; fax 515-972-4415

Power Plant Mercury Emissions

In July 2000, a panel of 10 scientists convened by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced that the amount of methylmercury in the environment should be reduced. Methylmercury, a highly toxic form of mercury, results from the interaction of mercury, released into the environment by industry, and bacteria, found in nature. The scientists' report gives the EPA needed support to write more restrictive regulations concerning mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants. The electric power plant industry had been resisting such restrictions. These plants are responsible for about one-third of total mercury emissions, emitting over 40 tons of mercury into the air each year. Incinerators, another main source, are already required to use equipment that restricts mercury emissions. Once in the air, mercury, like other pollutants, returns to earth via rain.

The NAS panel was deeply concerned by the level of methylmercury now found in freshwater fish. Forty-one states in the US have warnings against eating fish caught in lakes and streams. Methylmercury poses a particular risk to children, especially the unborn. An estimated 60,000 children each year are born with neurological and learning problems caused by methylmercury. Advising pregnant women to avoid eating fish is an unsatisfactory solution, according to the NAS panel, because fish has many valuable nutrients. The panel's report may cause the Food and Drug Administration to take another look at its current safety standards for fish. According to reporter Andrew C. Revkin, the FDA "uses a much less aggressive risk calculation than the EPA calculation endorsed by the [NAS panel]....”

"Milestone Report on Mercury Emissions" by Andrew C. Revkin. The New York Times, July 12, 2000

Going Barefoot

Going barefoot in public is frowned upon in the US. Children are usually the only ones to feel the world through their feet, and they are constantly reminded to put their shoes on. The Dirty Sole Society (www.barefooters.org) was formed a few years ago as a support group for adults (and their children) who want to experience the freedom and comfort of walking barefoot in public. Many of its 600+ members go barefoot year round. The web site includes scientific studies about the positive effects of going barefoot. It also reports that, contrary to common belief, most states do not have laws that require people to wear shoes while driving a car or in stores, restaurants, or workplaces – although businesses can set their own policies that prohibit bare feet.

An article in the New York Times says that barefooters accept responsibility for any injuries caused by walking unshod and not watching where they step. For some, going barefoot has resolved painful foot problems. For others, barefooting appeals to the nonconformist within. Some just appreciate the sensory information that comes through the soles of their feet and the feeling of connection to the earth. The Dirty Sole Society website has a place where people can share their experiences, which includes being expelled from public places for going barefoot and encounters with prejudice: barefooters are assumed to be poor or uneducated.

"The Barefoot Seek Wiggle Room" by Pam Belluck. The New York Times, July 12, 2000

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities & Roadblocks to Research

More energy has gone into ignoring or trying to discredit multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) as a physiological illness than has gone into understanding it, identifying causes, and finding effective treatments. Despite obvious signs of dysfunction, MCS sufferers – 70-80% of whom are women – have often been dismissed as hypochondriacs, neurotic housewives, and even "con artists swindling funds from the government (ABC News, 20/20, 1-3-97). In her testimony to the Office of Research on Women's Health, National lnstitutes of Health (July 21, 1997), Ann McCampbell, MD, explained some reasons why MCS has failed to gain recognition and asked the NIH to“make research on MCS a high priority.” McCampbell, who suffers from MCS herself, is the Chair of the Multiple Chemical Sensitivities Task Force of New Mexico, a MCS advocacy group.

Conventional medicine has been slow to address MCS because, as McCampbell points out, it does not fit the current theories about chemical exposures: "According to what I was taught in medical school, chemical sensitivities like those found in MCS shouldn't exist. The chemical levels that cause symptoms in MCS are too low to be having a classical toxic effect and MCS cannot be explained by traditional allergic mechanisms. Clearly MCS does not fit into our current model or paradigm of disease. Therefore, it threatens the status quo.”

In addition, the complex range of symptoms, which can affect every system in the body, is puzzling. McCampbell explains that "...symptoms of MCS include, but are not limited to, headache, fatigue, rashes, heart irregularities, respiratory difficulties, joint and muscle pain, nausea, diarrhea, weakness, poor coordination, and seizures. In addition, disorientation, memory loss, poor concentration, and difficulty thinking and speaking are common.”

Perhaps an even greater roadblock to validating MCS as a physiological illness is the intense lobbying and public relations campaigning waged by the chemical industry. McCampbell states that, in 1990, the Chemical Manufacturers Association "vowed to prevent the legitimization of MCS." The industry fears that it will face lawsuits and lowered sales if chemical exposures are proven to cause MCS. McCampbell points out that many pesticide and chemical manufacturers also make pharmaceutical drugs used to treat depression and anxiety. If MCS is proven to be a physiological response to chemical exposure rather than a psychological dysfunction, corporate sales may be affected on both fronts. McCampbell says that the chemical and pesticides industries are waging "a public relations campaign to promote the idea that chemicals are safe if used as directed and that MCS is not a 'real’ illness." In her home state of New Mexico, lobbyists for the pesticide and fragrance industries successfully blocked legislation in 1997, that would have funded a study designed to document MCS prevalence and economic impact in that state.

The existence of MCS not only threatens conventional medicine and the chemical industry, it also threatens our unconscious acceptance of and belief in technological progress that has become so much a part of the American way of life in the past century. McCampbell explains: "The other paradigm that is challenged by MCS is the assumption that the chemical soup in which we live is safe. With the dramatic rise in the manufacture and use of synthetic chemicals, we have increased our exposure to them in our air, food, and water. Many of these chemicals have not been adequately tested for safety, and the cumulative and synergistic effects are not generally known. People with MCS are often referred to as the ‘canaries in the mine’ serving to warn others that our world has become dangerously polluted. But acknowledging the existence of MCS threatens almost all aspects of our current way of life. This, ultimately, may be the biggest barrier to the aggressive pursuit of research on MCS.”

"Beyond Hunt Valley: Research on Women's Health for the 21st Century" testimony by Ann McCampbell, MD, PO Box 23079, Santa Fe, NM 87502 USA, 505-466-3622.

Environmentel Testing Fraud

In September 2000, a US federal grand jury charged five supervisors and eight chemists at Intertek's environmental testing laboratory in Richardson, Texas, with fraud. Government prosecutors say that test results were falsified and laboratory equipment used to measure toxins was poorly maintained in management's drive for higher profits. Intertek Testing Services Ltd. of London, which owns the lab, is not named in the indictment. However, its vice president for North America, Martin Dale Jeffus, is. According to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Jeffus is charged with having "personally directed and trained technicians to falsify results to meet customers' quality-control specifications." Federal prosecutors claim that the results of 59,000 projects, involving up to 250,000 soil, water, and air samples, are in question. At this time, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agrees with Intertek's claim that the falsifications have not threatened human health.

Intertek claims that "whatever data manipulation it did was inconsequential and was meant merely to tidy up the presentation of results to meet customers' expectations." In order to rectify the situation, the corporation wants to “revalidate” the toxicity results by returning to raw test data and adjusting the results to compensate for the laboratory's failure to clean and calibrate its equipment. Although Intertek closed its Texas environmental lab in 1998, it still has several units in the US that specialize in testing products and commodities.

EPA officials say that laboratory fraud is increasing.

"Intertek Lab Fudged Thousands of Tests, An Indictment Says" by Peter Waldman and Jim Carlton. The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2000.

Integrated Defense Systems & MCS

In his article for Environmental Health Perspectives (February 1998), Dr. Steven C. Rowat of Grantham's Landing, British Columbia, Canada, explains how disruptions in the body's integrated defense systems (IDS) could lead to multiple chemical sensitivity. In effect, an integrated defense system is a coordinated response from the central nervous, immune, and endocrine systems. In his article, Rowat defines nine IDS, including the stress response; acute-phase response in the aftermath of injury, trauma, or infection; nonspecific immune response; immune response to antigen; kindling; tolerance to persistent insults; time-dependent sensitization; neurogenic switching; and traumatic dissociation that terminates extreme emotional arousal during trauma with an alteration in identity, memory, or consciousness.

These integrated defense systems do not work in isolation. Instead, Rowat explains, they overlap: "Many of the IDS use identical messengers, cells, and tissues to accomplish their responses (interleukin-l [IL-l], interferons, ACTH, endorphins. T cells, substance P, neurotransmitters, etc.).... Many IDS have identical inciters…. For instance, eight of the nine IDS are known to be incited by exogenous chemicals and six by microorganisms. There is either direct or partial evidence that all nine are induced by physical stress, seven by endogeous chemicals, seven by psychological stress, etc." Rowat proposes that the IDS, which have evolved over eons, may not be able to deal with modern exposures to environmental chemicals and stress. The result may be diseases like multiple chemical sensitivity.

Rowat writes: "When faced with a puzzling disease entity, we may then ask the following three questions about each IDS. Has the IDS been damaged? Has the context to which the IDS responds been changed so much that the IDS's range of response is no longer adequate? Has the IDS learned a new range of response to reflect a changed context?”

Rowat says that current MCS studies often ignore the context, the total environment in which symptoms occur, when trying to identify a triggering substance. In particular, researchers tend to ignore psychological stress as a triggering factor. Rowat gives an extensive explanation of the biochemical changes that occur during traumatic dissociation, found in post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder and other disorders associated with childhood abuse. "If a patient has a history of trauma sufficient to have modified his or her [stress response]," Rowat explains, "psychological cues may incite changes in many messengers that also affect [time-dependent sensitization], including dopamine and norepinephrine, ACTH, beta- endorphins, ZN, IL-1, and other interleukins, hormones, and cells. Such stress occurring concurrent with new chemical exposure could be the mechanism by which the response is spread....”

Rowat suggests that researchers must broaden their view to include these overlapping integrated defense systems in order to understand multiple chemical sensitivity. Because symptoms do not always show up during controlled exposure to a single substance in an environmental medical unit, Rowat suggests that a large-scale epidemiological study, recruiting information from members in MCS groups and subscribers to MCS newsletters, may provide valuable information that laboratory studies cannot. "What appears to be required in the study of MCS – with its variable biomarkers, multi-organ symptoms, and diverse patient demographics – is a model that allows variable biomarkers and symptoms among different hosts, and even in the same host at different times."

"Integrated Defense System Overlaps as a Disease Model: With Examples for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity" by Steven C. Rowat. Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol 106, Supplement 1, February 1998