Cover-up: Insecticide causes Mad Cow disease
BIZARRE MAD COW GAMES
Viewable with paid subscription only - well worth the subscription
MAD COW DISEASE AND THE MAD AND USELESS GLOBAL SLAUGHTER OF ANIMALS
Viewable with paid subscription only - well worth the subscription
AN ECODETECTIVE'S JOURNEY INTO THE CENTER OF NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE
Viewable with paid subscription only - well worth the subscription
Radioactive metals, Sonic shockbursts and the Ferrimagneto-Prion theory on the origins of TSEs.
Viewable with paid subscription only - well worth the subscription
Mad Cow Disease: The Chemical Industry Plays Dirty
Quotes from below chat I was part of....
"The organophosphates interact with manganese by acting as an oxydising
agent. They change the manganese from a safe form into a highly lethal
free-radical generating form so to get spongiform disease of the new
variant type you would need to be simultaneously exposed to these two
environmental factors. In the traditional form of the disease one is
exposed to a much weaker oxidising agent in the form of ultra violet
radiation that is why traditional spongiform disease always starts in the
retina in the eye and it occurs in populations that live high up in
snow-covered mountains - with UV light is notoriously high. "
AND
"Avoid use of head lice shampoos and exposure to other forms of organophosphate insecticides. Also be a bit cautious of using mobile phones too intensively because they have an oxydising effect on the brain just like organophosphates. Also avoid living too near to industries that pollute the atmosphere with high levels of manganese such as industries that use manganese as a lead replacement in petrol etc."
Summarized his years of dedication and obsession to find the answers - traveling all over the world to where there are clusters - finding use of organophosphates or contamination with organophosphates AND high levels of manganese. It seems these are the 2 things that are necessary. High manganese fed to animals, pollution from factories nearby, high levels in the soil, sewage distributed around towns etc. He was on a forum after the show by email and said basically to not live anywhere near high manganese pollution, other polluting factories, don't use lice shampoos etc or organophosphates.
He traveled to Colorado, Iceland, Slovakia and other places with large clusters of people or animals with vCJD and BSE, testing soil, vegetation and water.
It showed the idiots in government who won't listen and just say a bunch of rhetoric instead of anything meaningful. I know what its like with my vaccine work. Idiots that really don't care who lives or dies as long as they are in power.
He has basically self taught himself chemistry and other sciences to be able to understand and communicate. It was an amazing report. Anyone else in the UK see it?
Solidarity: Mad cows and an Englishman
Mad cows and an Englishman - the truth about BSE?
'Mad cow disease' has created Europe's biggest public health challenge for half a century. We don't really understand BSE or the human equivalent. Could we have been looking for the answers in the wrong place? This is the story of the British farmer who thinks we have. By Edward Stourton.
Mark Purdey has taken on the government, big business and the scientific establishment - and some people are beginning to listen to what he has to say. He suggests that the key lies in what we have done to the world around us.
His struggle is the story of a broken promise. The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights pledges protection for the consumer and the environment, as part of its commitment to solidarity among Europe's people.
From farmer to self-taught scientist
In 1984 an unwelcome visitor arrived at the gates of Mark Purdey's organic farm in Somerset.
It was the beginning of an extraordinary odyssey which has transformed him from an obscure farmer to a self-taught scientist and passionate campaigner, and made him a central player in what must surely rank as the biggest public health crisis in Europe for at least half a century.
The Phillips Inquiry into BSE confirmed that the pesticides could make animals more susceptible to the disease. Not for the first time, Mark Purdey had made a connection that the official scientists had missed.
Edward Stourton The man from the Ministry had come with an order for the treatment of Warble Fly - a parasite which lays its eggs under the skin of cattle. Like all beef and dairy farmers in the area, Mark Purdey was told he had to use an organophosphate pesticide on his livestock to eradicate the infestation.
But he fought the order in court - and he won. When BSE was identified two years later Mark Purdey noticed that the areas where the disease was emerging more or less correlated with those where the organophosphates had been used against Warble Fly. His conclusion that the pesticide caused BSE turned out to be mistaken.
What the scientists missed
Mark Purdey
But nearly twenty years later the Phillips Inquiry into BSE confirmed that it could make animals more susceptible to the disease. Not for the first time, Mark Purdey had made a connection that the official scientists had missed.
Live chat Sunday 2005 GMT:
Are we looking in the wrong place for answers? Quiz Mark Purdey.
Orthodox opinion on BSE and its human cousin CJD has focused on the food chain; cows, the argument runs, got BSE by eating feed made from sheep infected with scrapie, and humans get CJD by eating BSE infected beef.
But Mark Purdey believes that both BSE and CJD are caused by a much more complex mix of different causes.
A society needs extremists. They need obsessive individuals who can really get to the root of something.
Mark Purdey And he thinks the key lies in the environment around us - an elusive factor X which triggers the disease. If he is right we need to rethink everything we have done to fight the spread of mad cow disease and its human equivalent.
The meat and bone meal bans, the export bans on British beef, the slaughter of tens of thousands of cattle, the expenditure of billions of pounds of taxpayers' money - all may have been in vain. And the question of whether or not to eat beef may turn out to be the least of our worries.
A long and lonely battle
Mark Purdey's battle has been long and lonely - and he's paid a price in his private life. But he makes no apology for being obsessive. "A society needs extremists," he says, "they need obsessive individuals who can really get to the root of something".
He has had to teach himself chemistry and biology to a level where he can publish his work in scientific journals, and he's travelled all over Europe and beyond. He's been fighting for almost two decades.
Factor X
The key to the Factor X he has been looking for lies in the balance of metals in the brain. Manganese is needed by the human body to function healthily. But when humans or animals take in too much of it - especially if that coincides with a lack of copper in the body - things can go badly wrong with the brain.
Mark Purdey studied the environment in so-called cluster areas of spongiform diseases - in Colorado in the United States, in Iceland, in Italy and in the Tatra mountains of Slovakia. In all of them he found a high level of manganese and low levels of copper.
For years the scientific establishment has been able to dismiss this Somerset farmer without a degree as a maverick. But his work has now begun to attract attention in some surprising quarters.
Dr David Brown is a researcher at Cambridge University, and he is about to publish the results of his research on the brains of people who have died of CJD.
They seem to corroborate Mark Purdey's belief that the Factor X behind the disease that's killing cows and humans is manganese in the environment. The maverick is beginning to look like a visionary.
Live chat Sunday 2005 GMT:
Are we looking in the wrong place for answers? Quiz Mark Purdey.
Mad cows and an Englishman: 1920 GMT Sunday 25th March on BBC 2.
BSE: Are we looking in the wrong place for answers? Quiz Mark Purdey
The export bans, the slaughter of tens of thousands of cattle, the expenditure of billions of pounds of taxpayers' money - Could we have been looking for the answers in the wrong place to BSE or the human equivalent CJD?
British farmer Mark Purdey thinks we have. He believes the key lies in the environment around us - an elusive factor X which triggers the disease.
Dismissed for years by the scientific establishment as a maverick, this Somerset farmer turned scientist is now being taken more seriously. - A researcher at Cambridge university is about to publish research backing up Mark Purdey¿s belief that it is the balance of metals in the environment that affects the brain and could lead to the disease.
Transcript:
News Host: Hello, and welcome to Correspondent's first live chat. Mark Purdey will be here to answer your questions on BSE in about five minutes. You can send your questions NOW by typing them into the box at the bottom of the page. You must press return/enter on your keyboard to send a question. This is a moderated chat which means that any duplicate questions and general hello messages will be filtered out. Try to keep your questions and/or comments as concise as possible.
Philip Orton: I seem to remember a TV drama (James Herriot?) broadcast 8-10 years ago in which a cow had developed BSE like symptoms. Nobody had the answer until a soil analysis was done This showed very low levels of copper as the cause! Did this inspire your research?
Mark Purdey: What got me interested in metals particularly in copper during the 1970s government laboratories had done research inducing scrapie disease in mice by injecting them with a chemical called cuprizone. This chemical caused scrapie by locking onto copper in the brain of treated animals and when I found low levels of copper in all their spongiform areas around the world I then began to feel something was going on here.
Question: I've heard a bit about your ideas and they make a lot of sense. But BSE on an epidemic scale has only occurred in Britain. If your theory is to be proved you will have to explain why. Have you any theories or suggestions in this area?
News Host: If you've just joined us, we're talking to BSE expert Mark Purdey. He will try and answer as many questions as possible. In the meantime, please keep sending in your questions, NOW by typing them into the box at the bottom of the page. You must press return/enter on your keyboard to send a question.
Mark Purdey: In Britain we were unique in using a much higher dosage of systemic OP insecticides for warbel control these high doses interacted with the manganese in the brains of treated cows and produced Mark Purdey highly virulent form of manganese that produces an accellerated type of free radical disease this is new variant BSE/CJD.
Matanza: Can this problem be erradicated by treatment, or is it too late in your opinion?
Mark Purdey: You might be able to arrest the disease by treating with copper providing that copper can cross the blood/brain barrier. The copper would bond with the prion protein and protect it from bonding to manganese.
Mark Studden: Have Manganese levels in our food chain been lowered as a result of your research, or are they still so high?
Mark Purdey: Manganese levels are increasing quite severely in the food chain. Firstly as a result of acid rain which unlocks manganese in the soil and makes it more available to plants. Secondly as a result of industry such as steel, glass, lead-free petrol production. This causes increased emissions of manganese into the atmosphere and you can breathe in this manganese in the air that goes directly through the nose and it goes straight to the brain via the olfactory lobe.
Tim Harrison: What is it that you think gave you the drive and enthusiasm that let you research this subject in such depth?
Mark Purdey: I have always this drive to understand the effects of toxic environmental poisons on the brain both as a nervous effect and a psychological effect. But I am also very angry at the way these chemicals are permitted to be unleashed into the food chain without any long-term concerns and I am also angry at the way that the responsible bodies have no concern for these long-term repercussions on our health.
Paul Reeler: Does Mark Purdey think that the way meat is cooked, whether rare or well done affects whether humans catch the disease ?
Mark Purdey: I do not think that meat has any connection at all with new variant CJD simply because the cheap cuts of meat that were blamed for causing variant CJD were exported all over the world particularly third world countries, where new variant CJD has never occurred.
Jenny Le: Notwithstanding the manganese implication, is there still a connection with the use of organophosphates do you think?
Mark Purdey: The organophosphates interact with manganese by acting as an oxydising agent. They change the manganese from a safe form into a highly lethal free-radical generating form so to get spongiform disease of the new variant type you would need to be simultaneously exposed to these two environmental factors. In the traditionally form of the disease one is exposed to a much weaker oxidising agent in the form of ultra violet radiation that is why traditional spongiform disease always starts in the retina in the eye and it occurs in populations that live high up in snow-covered mountains - with UV light is notoriously high.
Debbie Griffiths: Do you or Dr brown still need funds to carry on your campaign and if so how can people contribute?
Mark Purdey: I have a research account into which I pay my laboratory fees for analysing the various samples I draw in these spongiform cluster regions and I welcome any donations however small into my bank account.
Greame Jarvie: Have you had any interest/response from European research authorities in the absence of this from their UK counterparts?
Mark Purdey: I think that the UK's reluctance to research my theory is based on the fact that they compelled farmers by law to use these chemicals and a licenced feeding of manganese at dose rates which could be risky. The UK Government would therefore be admitting liability for potential damage claims should they accept that these products have a role in the cause of these diseases.
Question: Did the report on Queniborough not specifically state that there were not high levels of manganese in the area, unlike what was shown in your tests?
Mark Purdey: Yes this is very true. The levels of manganese are naturally low in the soils of the Quinaborough area but the point is that the surrounding farmers are spraying on a potent manganese fertiliser several times a year. There is also widespread application of sewage sludge around all the villages that have a variant CJD problem. Manganese is also at a high level in sewage and it becomes air borne during spreading operations. Villages will therefore be breathing in these various manganese substances and taking it straight into their brains via the nasal/olfactory route.
Andrej Machacek: Mark, I come from Slovakia and the High Tatras are one of my favourite places in the world. I was very saddened by the fate of some of the locals mentioned in the programme and was wondering whether the people (e.g. those innocently drinking the pine needle tea) were informed of the outcomes of your research...
Mark Purdey: Because of language barriers I had great difficulty in communicating but they were well aware of the fact that the trees were dying in the very villages where CJD was at high incidence and they were aware that this was being caused by the emissions from the nearby steele factories. Whilst they were aware that this was causing respiratory problems with their breathing they weren't aware of the CJD link. But Dr. Eve Matrova who was in the programme is pursuing my work with great interest and will be influencing the local vicinity to get this sorted out. I agree with you it is a beautiful area - I loved it.
Simon Blake: What can the public do, if your theory is correct, to protect themselves right now?
Mark Purdey: Avoid use of head lice shampoos and exposure to other forms of organophosphate insecticides. Also be a bit cautious of using mobile phones too intensively because they have an oxydising effect on the brain just like organophosphates. Also avoid living too near to industries that pollute the atmosphere with high levels of manganese such as industries that use manganese as a lead replacement in petrol etc.
Ade Webb: How were you able to run at farm at the same time as everything else?
Mark Purdey: It is an absolute nightmare. I always say I need to have three bodies operating simultaneously..
Mark Purdey: Thanks for your concern!
Simon Kemp: Do you have a website where you publish your results and progress?
Mark Purdey: I have just opened an e-mail site. markpurdey.madcow@virgin.net and I hope to have an internet site in the near future.
News Host: That is all we have time for. Thank you to Mark Purdey for taking the time to answer these questions. And thanks to all of you for sending them in. Sorry if your question didn't get answered - there just wasn't enough time to cover them all. You can contact Mark by email at markpurdey.madcow@virgin.net and a full transcript of our chat with Mark Purdey will appear soon at www.bbc.co.uk/correspondent. Don't forget to keep checking our site for more live chats!
Oprah Winfrey Show 4/16/96 Oprah is being
sued by meat industry for telling about this issue on her show and saying she'd never eat meat again!
Howard Lyman, The Mad Cowboy website Howard Lyman who was on Oprah when the beef industry became unhappy
Transcript of Oprah Winfrey Show on Mad Cow Disease