1500 Children Die Every Year From CT Scans - Insecticides Cause Mad Cow Disease

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http://www.mercola.com/2001/feb/4/ct_scans.htm

1500 Children Die Every Year From CT Scans

Abstracted from USA

Today

Each year, about

1.6 million

children in the USA get CT scans to the

head and abdomen - and about

1,500

of

those

will die later in

life of radiation-induced cancer.

What's more, CT or computed tomography scans given to kids are typically

calibrated for

adults, so children

absorb two to six

times the

radiation

needed to produce clear images.

Radiologists could turn down the X-rays without losing quality, and thus

expose the children to less potentially cancer-causing radiation.

These doses are much larger than the sorts of doses that people at Three

Mile Island were getting. Most people there got a tenth or a hundredth of

the dose of a CT.

Doctors use CT scans on children to search for cancers and ailments such

as appendicitis and kidney stones. There's a huge number of people who

don't just receive one scan.

About 11%

of the CT scans at his center are done in

children under

15, and they get

70%

of the total

radiation dose given to patients.

Children have more rapidly dividing cells than adults, which are

more susceptible to radiation

damage. Children also will live long

enough for cancers to develop.

The breast

dose from a CT scan of the chest is

somewhere between

10

and

20

mammograms.

You'd want to think long and hard about giving your young daughter 10 to

20 mammograms unless she really needs it.

CT scans are used in about

4%

of medical X-ray

examinations, but it contributes to an

estimated

40% of the

total

radiation dose to the population.

American Journal of

Roentgenology 2001:176;303-306

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

I always knew CT scans were high in radiation

but I was completely unaware of the enormous danger this scan poses to

children. I suspect many of you are also similarly unaware. This is a

hugely important study and the message is quite clear.

Avoid CT scans unless you or your child's life depends upon it.

Frequently an MRI imaging study can achieve similar results. MRIs are far

safer than CT scans, they should also be used with caution, but, to the

best of my knowledge, are not associated with an increased cancer

rate.

http://www.mercola.com/2001/feb/4/insecticides_mad_cow.htm

Insecticides Cause Mad Cow Disease

Pharmaceutical interests in the UK are

ignoring new scientific research that shows the

insecticide

used in the UK government's own warble-fly

campaigns triggered the UK

surge of

'Mad Cow'

disease.

Latest

experiments by Cambridge University prion specialist,

R.

Brown, have shown that manganese bonds

with prions. Other researchers work shows that prions in the bovine spine

--along which insecticides are applied-- can be damaged by ICI's

Phosmet

organophosphate(OP) insecticide -causing the disease.

British scientists have led the current theory that an

infectious

prion in bonemeal fed to cattle

causes bovine spongiform

disease (BSE). Infectious prions are also

claimed to cause new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans

-from ingesting beef. But the infectious prion theory serves to obscure a

tragic chemical

poisoning scandal behind the majority of

BSE cases.

The new work proves that the prions can bond with manganese in animal

feeds or mineral licks. These

manganese prions

cause the neurological degeneration seen

in BSE. By a similar process, prions in human brains are damaged by lice

lotions containing organophosphate. This can result in neurological

diseases like CJD and

Alzheimer's

-later in life.

Many might be surprised to hear that organophosphates were developed by

Nazi chemists during the course World War Two, as a

chemical

weapon

nerve

agent.

The marginalized research has devastating financial implications for ICI.

It would provide a firm basis for

litigants -who could include CJD

sufferers, farmers across the world and families of the many British

farmers who committed suicide during this BSE debacle.

Scientist and organic farmer, Mark Purdey gave evidence to the UK BSE

inquiry, that warble fly insecticide was the cause of the disease. The

scientist wheeled out to rubbish Purdy's evidence -Dr. Ray, later

turned out to have been receiving

funding from the insecticide manufacturer

ICI.

Purdey has been consistently denied even exploratory funding to extend

his privately supported research. Yet the Purdey/Brown chemical poisoning

model matches with the epidemiological spread of CJD clusters in humans.

It also predicts the incidence of BSE-type diseases in animals. The

accepted infectious model fits neither.

The

pharmaceutical

industry

is all the more determined to hide

the chemical source of BSE and CJD,

because a spotlight on chemicals would expose the role the insecticides

in

Alzheimer's

--another neurodegenerative disease--that might lead to claims which

would dwarf those from BSE and CJD litigants. In fact,

two leading brain

researchers into CJD and Alzheimer's have

died

in suspicious circumstances in recent

years.

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is already

reviewing Phosmet's safety. The Centers for Disease Control in the US has

recently conducted experiments on mice that confirm the organophosphate

risk.

Not only is the EC beef slaughter campaign futile -because BSE disease is

mostly noninfectious, but unless the underlying chemical cause is

addressed, BSE

will simply

reappear from chemical

causes. A new warble fly campaign is

already underway in France using the organophosphate insecticide.

Of greater concern

is that some lotions for scabies and head lice are now priming children

and adults, for CJD and Alzheimer's in later life.

Bonding the Prion

Cambridge University prion biochemist,

R.

Brown is

dismissive of the

science behind the infectious model of

BSE. He terms it " a very limited amount of science by a few assumed-

reputable scientists. " He insists there is " no evidence an

infectious agent is present in either meat or milk. "

" Simple tests on udder walls of cows --which could easily detect an

infectious prion-- have not been done, why I don't understand. "

A number of researchers have found that

organophosphate(OP)

in systemic warble fly insecticide

can deform the prion

molecule, rendering it ineffective at

buffering free radical effects in the body. Worse still, the prion is

then partial to bond with

manganese and become a 'rogue' prion. A

chain reaction whereby rogue prions turn others to rogues also, can

explain the bovine spongiform disease mechanism.

Brown showed how prion protein bonds benignly with copper, but lethally

with manganese. Even natural variations in relative environmental

availability of manganese versus copper can trigger prion degradation.

The

CJD

and

BSE

symptoms mirror 'manganese

madness', an irreversible fatal

neuro-psychiatric degenerative syndrome that plagued manganese miners in

the first half of the last century

Shining A Light On

Spongiform

Organic dairy farmer and

peer-review-published independent scientist,

Mark

Purdey, says the accepted theory of

transmission from BSE-infected cattle to human CJD -by bonemeal or meat,

is dependent on a mutant

prion that has

never been

isolated under the scientific protocol

called Koch's postulates.

Purdey's insistence on sticking to the letter of this scientific law

earned him the condemnation of UK

officialdom when he first mooted his

theory. But Purdey pointed to CJD clusters downwind of a British Phosmet

production plant to back his case.

He gave evidence to the UK Government BSE inquiry and was supported by

Conservative MP, Thessa Gorman. His views were discounted, but his

subsequent research and the new Cambridge prion work have

confirmed the alternative

theory. Despite this, and the backing of

a British peer, he is denied even exploratory funding.

Why does CJD

degeneration in humans begin in the retina, and why are CJD disease

clusters found in high altitude locations?

The prion molecule has a known natural

role as a shock absorber of damaging energy from ultraviolet rays and

other oxidizing agents.

Once this prion defense system is rendered ineffective by

organophosphates - for example in

human head lice

lotions, these oxidizing effects have an

unmediated impact on tissues. Eventually,

UV radiation

damages the retina and oxidative stress destroys the brain tissues of CJD

patients. This theory would expect to

find higher CJD incidence in mountain regions -where UV radiation levels

are elevated. That prediction holds true.

A similar but accelerated mechanism could be driving BSE. ICI's Phosmet

organophosphate warble fly insecticide -applied on the backs of animals

along the spinal column, similarly degrades prions. " Systemic

versions of the insecticide are designed to make the entire cow carcass

toxic to warble fly, " explains Purdey. " Unfortunately it's

toxic to prions

too -especially those prions located just

millimeters from the point of application. "

The damaged

prions are then

ready to react with

manganese in animal feed, or manganese

sprayed on land or in mineral licks -to become the

driving

force of

BSE

neurodegeneration. Purdey says manganese-tipped prions set off

lethal chain

reactions that neurologically burn

through the animal.

Chickens notoriously excrete most of the supplements fed to them

-including manganese. And their manganese-rich excreta have been blended

into cattle feed in the UK. Natural variations in the relative

environmental availability of copper and manganese can also spur prion

degeneration says Purdey.

From this research, any prudent person would conclude there is a

significant risk attaching to the

use of organophosphate in humans.

Preparations for head lice and scabies are known to be overused in

practice and might be priming users for CJ disease.

The Money

Trail

Critical scientists like Purdey are

unlikely to prevail. The pharma industry holds most research purse

strings, and would hardly energetically explore an avenue of research

that could expose them to

litigation for causing BSE. The official

theory is lavishly funded, alternative theories rarely, if at all.

There are more explosive implications to his -and other's latest

research. Purdey says similar organophosphate-induced protein deformation

could also underlie Alzheimer's disease. If that were true, the

litigation fallout would destroy

some pharmaceutical giants, and a lot of

very influential noses would be out of joint.

Disturbingly, Purdey and other brain researchers seem to have had an

undue share of unfortunate

accidents. Purdey's house was burned down

and his lawyer who was working with him on Mad Cow Disease was driven off

the road by another vehicle and subsequently died. The veterinarian on

the case also died in a car crash -locally reported as: 'Mystery Vet

Death Riddle.'

Dr. C. Bruton, a CJD specialist --who had just produced a paper on a new

strain of CJD-- was killed in a car crash before his work was announced

to the public. Purdey speculates that Bruton might have known more than

what was revealed in his last scientific paper.

In 1996, leading Alzheimer's researcher Tsunao Saitoh, 46 and his 13

-year-old daughter were killed in La Jolla, California, in what a Reuters

report described as a " very professionally done " shooting.

EIONews.com

December, 13 2000

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

You will be hearing more and more of Mad Cow

Disease and it gradually shifts its way to the US. Most of what you read

about it ignore the truth of the connection of organophosphate

pesticides.

Mad Cow disease is not common in the US but Alzheimer's is and this is a

good reason to avoid pesticides.

Related Articles:

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Pesticides

Pesticides May Decrease Male Fertility

Pesticides Increase Breast Cancer Risk

Pesticides May Increase Parkinson's Risk