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Trail:
Articles
Bequerels on the Brain
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| Bequerels
on the Brain - Mark Purdey
An eco-detective’s journey into
the centre of neuro-degenerative disease.
For several years now, a US lead research team has ascribed the cause
of the world’s most intensive cluster of neuro-degenerative disease on
the isle of Guam onto the traditional consumption of ‘natural toxins’
found in the fruit of the cycad tree (1)(2) – a rather innocuous looking
miniature palm tree that has outlived the dinosaurs and provided a staple
flour product for the indigenous people who populate the South Pacific
islands.
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Two of my 'Chamorro' friends
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I remember watching a BBC2 documentary "Poison in
Paradise" featuring Oliver Sack’s own investigation (3) into this
mysterious epidemic of Parkinsons, Alzheimer's and Motor neurone based
neuro-degenerative conditions amongst the Chamorro natives.
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| The majority
of cases were confined to three adjoining coastal villages on the southern
tip of Guam (See map) |
| Since no cases of the disease had surfaced prior to the 1950s, and few
cases have as yet appeared in any person born after the mid 1950s, the key
epidemiological factors suggest that this cluster represents a delayed
neuro-toxic reaction to the introduction of some alien toxic agent into
the local environment during the 1940s/1950s.
But the only ring of truth that resonated from Sack’s 50 minute
programme, was peeled out by the wife of one of the Chamorro victims
exhibited on the film.
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| In a 30 second sound bite that had surprisingly
escaped the cutting room floor, Mrs Santos challenged the ‘cycad’
dogma head on; protesting that they had been eating this fruit for
eternity, so why the sudden emergence of this crippling disease during the
1950s? She went on -
"My husband’s auntie said it was during the
American invasion of Guam when they were bombing the waters. There was
something in the bomb that was polluting the water. The children at that
time were bathing in it and drinking it."
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I inspect a Cycad
Tree! |
| So I travelled to Guam in September 2003 to carry out a total
environmental analyses and eco-detective investigation of the environment
supporting the three neighbouring coastal villages of Umatac, Merizo and
Inarajan – the epicentre of this neuro-degenerative cluster (2).
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