West Nile Virus/Air Pollution

[Guest guest]

See Jim's site too

http://www.geocities.com/noxot

(just posted it the other day!)

Sheri

From Jim West " jw " <harpub@...>

Hello Everybody!

Whew! The air is getting a little clearer around here already!

West Nile virus and air pollution gets the focus. A diligent investigative

journalist at ABC, Regush, put this together.

A major ABCNEWS online article re WNV and air pollution:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/SecondOpinion/secondopinion010829.html

-Jim West

**************

Virus or Environment?

Commentator Questions Blame Placed on West Nile Virus

Commentary

By Regush

Aug. 29

The potential importance of polluted and unhealthy environments in which

West Nile virus outbreaks often occur is being ignored due to lack of

funding and scientific indifference.

It's noteworthy that West Nile virus is typically described by scientists

as a rare, mild and usually harmless infection in humans, affecting mostly

the elderly. In birds, however, the virus has been highly touted as a killer.

Like Canaries in a Mine

Traditionally, birds have been viewed as sentinels for toxic environments,

the canary in the mine being the most famous example.

What if some degree of the damage to birds and humans now attributed solely

to the virus is actually triggered by harsh environmental factors that need

to be addressed?

To date, attempts to prevent West Nile outbreaks have often relied on the

spraying of mosquitoes. This is controversial and raises the possibility of

further polluting a toxic environment that is already causing harm and

contributing to the outbreaks.

McLean is one of several federal scientists prominently involved in

West Nile virus studies who understands the importance of also

investigating environmental factors in the emergence of new diseases. For

instance, some studies seem to show that toxic air pollution could

potentially enhance the activity of a virus and make it churn out more

copies of itself.

" Because we don't have the resources, we're missing the opportunity to look

at many different factors that may be going on with West Nile, " he said. As

director of the Wisconsin-based National Wildlife Health Center of the U.S.

Geological Survey, McLean now spends most of his time diagnosing and

studying dead crows and other wildlife that turn up positive for a West

Nile virus infection.

Dr. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University, who has played an important role in

identifying the genetics of the West Nile virus, is an infectious disease

scientist who thinks beyond microbes. He too believes that an understanding

of disease comes from probing the relationship between environmental

factors, including viruses and toxic substances, and the genetic endowment

of individuals.

To Lipkin, it makes perfect sense to want to know more about how, say, " an

unhealthy environment might break down immunity in both birds and humans

and make them more susceptible to viral infection. It's worthy to pursue

this. "

Searching and Tracking

Even so, when all is said and done, both McLean and Lipkin are still

focused on the biology and behavior of the virus. That's where the research

action has been since the outbreaks began in New York City in the summer of

1999.

Much of the public health effort is aimed at tracking and identifying

mosquitoes that transmit the virus, tracking and diagnosing dead birds,

particularly crows, for signs of the virus and monitoring human blood

samples for signs of infection.

Symptoms of human infection are said to include fever, headache, and body

aches. The rare serious cases can involve inflammation of the brain,

causing stupor, tremors, convulsions, paralysis and death.

In 1999, seven people who died and 62 people who became ill turned up

positive for the virus. Last year, there were 21 cases, including two deaths.

So far this year, at least ten people, including four in Florida, one in

Georgia and five in the New York City area have turned up positive.

Last month, a study published in The Lancet estimated on the basis of

sample blood tests and interviews that 8,200 people in the New York City

area in 1999 came down with asymptomatic West Nile infections and about

1,700 experienced some flu-like symptoms.

Ozone and the Immune System

Valuable clues have not been investigated about the possible role of air

quality in the outbreaks that began in the New York area in 1999. Outbreaks

have since occurred in other regions of the country.

The summer of 1999 in New York City was extremely hot and, according to the

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the smog was

the worst in more than a decade. Smog includes ozone, which forms in the

air from other toxic substances, including nitrogen oxides and volatile

organic compounds.

It is scientifically established that ozone can affect the body's immune

system so that the ability to fight infection may be impaired. It also can

cause damage to the brain and lungs.

Steady Flow of Dead Crows

As New Yorkers baked in the heat that summer and were exposed to high

levels of ozone, veterinarians and pathologists began to receive calls

about unusual numbers of bird deaths.

In Delmar, near Albany, a veteran wildlife expert at the DEC's wildlife

pathology unit, Ward Stone, began to receive a steady flow of dead crows,

the most he had seen in 30 years.

He figured the heat and the lack of rain had somehow exposed old pesticides

in soil and vegetation. It seemed the birds were being poisoned.

Stone then requested the standard type of toxicology testing. In looking

for pesticide residues, it is routine to check for low levels of the enzyme

cholinesterase. It has become standard practice that even if there are very

little or no pesticide residues found in the birds, if the cholinesterase

levels are low, then it is deemed likely that the death was due to

pesticide poisoning.

On the basis of the tests, he began to theorize that the epidemic of dead

birds was likely due to pesticides.

Stone didn't request tests to determine if bad air quality was playing a

role in the bird deaths even though high ozone levels can also affect

cholinesterase levels.

" We don't order those tests because there are no funds to do that kind of

work, " he said.

In fact, Stone couldn't recall anyone in his line of work doing air

toxicology tests on birds.

When Stone's conclusions about pesticides and dead birds were about ready

to be released in a DEC report, a human mystery disease was given an identity.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani held a press conference on Sept. 3, 1999,

to announce that scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention in Atlanta had identified the St. Louis encephalitis (SLE)

virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, as the culprit in the

hospitalizations of several elderly patients. They initially had high

fever, headaches and altered mental status and gradually showed signs of

brain inflammation.

Soon helicopters and trucks began spraying areas of New York City with the

highly toxic insecticide, malathion.

With several scientific groups conducting further genetic tests, it was

soon agreed that the culprit was actually West Nile virus and not SLE,

Kunjin virus, which was also a major suspect, is another member of this

family.

Indifference?

But air quality was not deemed to be an important factor for study among

those scientists working on West Nile virus.

This indifference smacked of short-sightedness and arrogance to Jim West, a

researcher who works with NoSpray Coalition, an environmental group that

has been in the forefront of New York area protests against the spraying of

insecticides.

West, 54, is not a scientist. He has music talent in his background and a

solid block of engineering courses. Translation: he is mainly self-taught

when it comes to biology and toxicology.

He decided to begin mapping the relationship between dead crows and ozone

levels (see Web link at right.)

Consulting New York State records and ozone maps from the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA), he noticed that there was a strong correlation

between areas of high ozone levels and dead birds that turned up positive

for West Nile virus.

West understands that strong correlations do not necessarily mean the

relationship is a causal one. " But this correlation continues to this very

day, " he said, adding that " anyone studying these publicly available maps

and health department documents would have to wonder why the correlations

are so strong and should want to further investigate. "

Environmental Efforts and Ozone

As one of many examples, he points out that the first seven of eight dead

positive crows were found this year in New Jersey's Middlesex county, which

happens to be near oil refineries.

West probed further. He set his research sights on a chemical called MTBE

(methyl tertiary butyl ether) put into so-called reformulated gasoline as

part of a federal effort to make gas burn cleaner.

Some critics believe that MTBE may be even more harmful than ozone.

According to ph, a toxicologist at the University of

Pennsylvania, " symptoms vary widely as MTBE can affect the nervous system,

breathing, the heart and trigger allergies. "

To date, states are at various stages of reconsidering use of the chemical.

A New York State ban on MTBE will go into effect in 2004.

Factoring in Ecological Context

West discovered that those New York City area counties with

MTBE-reformulated gasoline reported that 117 dead crows were positive for

West Nile virus. The other counties without the MTBE only reported 2

positives. The counties by then had tested about 570 dead birds.

Breaking the data down further, he found that in those MTBE-using counties

designated as severe air pollution areas by the EPA, the percentage of

positives of those birds tested was 24 times the number found in moderate-

and less-polluted counties.

" Jim West's got some good ideas, but he's not a scientist, " said Stone, who

has met with West at the state pathology unit in Delmar and finds his

modeling plausible. " Yes, we certainly need to take a look at air

pollution, but I don't think that it has anything to do with West

Nile-related morbidity. "

Technology Linking Dead Birds and West Nile

Ahearn, director of Hunter College's Center for the Analysis and

Research of Spatial Information, offers another perspective. " I think it

is extremely important to factor in air pollution and even MTBE because

they may harm the immune system and make it easier for an infection to take

hold. "

Ahearn and his colleagues run a computer project for the City of New York

that uses a sophisticated formula to chart clusters of dead birds across

the city. Still in its testing phase, it is helping the city to link

non-random dead bird clusters to pools of mosquitoes that show signs of the

West Nile virus and then to possibly predict where human infection has a

high probability of occurring.

" The next phase of the project will be to factor in the ecological context,

things like air quality and weather, " Ahearn said. " I think this is the

only logical way to go. "

Virus Takes the Blame

Guptil of the geographic sciences branch of the U.S. Geological

Survey agrees. He too says that his unit may consider mapping an air

quality layer in their tracking of West Nile events.

" We may find via this tracking that higher ozone levels lead to greater

susceptibility to replicate more virus, " Guptil said.

Maybe so, but is there more to this than meets the eye? Guptil is assuming

that only the virus (whatever the amount of viral replication) leads to

harm, either in crows or humans.

That assumption may turn out to be premature. In a paper published in the

journal Science on Dec. 17, 1999, the authors claimed they had isolated the

West Nile virus. It's since been widely accepted (as Guptil does) that

whenever the " virus " is injected into, say, a crow, and the crow dies, it

means that here is proof positive that the cause of West Nile disease is

solely the virus.

That conclusion suggests to many scientists that you might as well forget

about any environmental factors being necessary in causing West

Nile-associated illness. Some scientists, including Lipkin and McLean,

allow for the possibility that environmental factors might enhance the

opportunities for infection.

Either way, the virus remains the culprit.

Filtering Out the Virus

F. , the director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment

station in New Haven and the lead author of the study, explained that his

group ground up mosquitoes and the brains of dead crows and after several

steps eventually filtered out the virus.

He used a filter of 0.22 micrometers because he wanted to " exclude bacteria

and fungi " from the culture.

The purpose of isolating a virus is to ensure that viral particles are pure

and therefore separated from everything else, including possibly harmful

materials from the very cells they infect. That way you are reassured that

further tests may tap the virus as the likely cause of an illness.

But was a filter of 0.22 micrometers small enough, given that a West Nile

viral particle is said to be 0.04 micrometers, about six times smaller than

the filter? In other words, there is enough room for cellular matter to

move through the pores along with the West Nile viral particle. That

cellular matter could incorporate the biochemical products of other toxic

insults, including those from the environment, to the organism.

" Yes, small molecules [from tissue] can pass through, " admitted,

but didn't think this might be a problem of any kind.

" We don't have a purified form of the virus, " said McLean

matter-of-factly. " Cellular material could interact with the virus to

enhance the replication of viral particles. "

What McLean left unsaid was the possibility that the cellular material

itself could be sufficiently toxic to cause damage to tissue, with or

without the virus.

Clearing the Air

The fact is, no one knows. The West Nile virus was never purified. I find

no evidence anywhere in the scientific literature that the rules of virus

purification and isolation were followed thoroughly.

Add to this potentially serious omission the scientific indifference to the

possible role of the environment in what is being called " West Nile "

illness and death.

So what does this all suggest?

A major error in understanding why many birds and some individuals are

becoming ill?

An unnecessary and costly West Nile virus industry, consisting of drug

development, vaccine-making, public health fiefdoms, fights for status and

funding, and so on?

It would help to clarify the situation if we could get some serious air

toxicology research underway. That shouldn't be too much to ask.

Regush produces medical features for ABCNEWS. In his regularly

featured column, he investigates medical trouble spots, heralds innovative

achievements and analyzes health trends.His latest book is The Virus Within.

Copyright © 2001 ABC News Internet Ventures

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

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