OPUS

ORGANOPHOSPHATE USERS SUPPORT — Mid Wales and Marches Group
To help farmers and their families suffering from organophosphate poisoning.
Patrons: Michael Hooper Bishop of Ludlow, Professor Andrew Watterson,
Professor Malcolm Hooper, Lord Livsey of Talgarth, John Melville Williams QC.
Chairman: Mrs Teresa Layton
Committee: Rev’d Ian Charlesworth, Mr Tony Grinnall, Mr John Hoyte, Dr Sarah Myhill,
OPUS charity number 1086930
Secretary Rev’d Nick Read, The Rectory, Pembridge, Hereford 11R6 9EB

OCTOBER 2009 NEWSLETTER

John Hoyte and Tristran Loraine have done an excellent job with press/radio coverage recently, leaving no doubt the health problems pilots and cabin crew are suffering are due to organophosphates in jet oil. As the pilots, farmers, Gulf War victims, etc. continue to make their voices heard, we must all continue to believe and hope that very soon the Government and chemical companies will accept their responsibilities.

The AGM will be on Wednesday, 2nd December to be held at The Plough Inn, Knighton at 7.15pm (please note new venue). Dr Sarah Myhill will speak on “How to live to be 100!” Do come if you can. Very best wishes. Teresa Layton — Chairman OPUS

Medical Report

It is not just you farmers who are being poisoned! We find ourselves standing alongside many other groups who have been similarly poisoned. Firstly it was the Gulf War Veterans, then the 9/11 firemen and now most notably. the aerotoxic pilots. Pilots, cabin crew and indeed all passengers are at risk of poisoning every time they fly. This is because cabin air is drawn in over the engines where It is heated and pressurised. It is also subject to leaks and contamination with engine fumes that contain not just noxious gases and unburned hydrocarbons, but also organophosphates. TCP (tricresylphosphate) is used as an additive in oil to prevent it burning at high temperatures. it is not every journey that results in a poisoning, but no engine is perfect and the slightest leak has the potential to cause a problem

At last perhaps this issue of poisoning will come to the public consciousness because anybody who flies on a plane is at risk of aerotoxic syndrome. Indeed in my small practice it is astonishing how many people say their chronic fatigue syndrome dated from a trip abroad — the general assumption is that they picked up a bug whilst being in a foreign country, or a virus as a result of sitting in close proximity to other passengers, but the real truth is that they have been poisoned.

This is something which the authorities are going to find extremely difficult to cover up. It is all aircraft all over the world, all pilots and air crew and all passengers. That is a lot of people and when they get sick they get angry. John Hoyte, one of our Committee members is spearheading the attack and has done a magnificent job in raising awareness of the problem, the next step that will happen will be legal action and a general acceptance that poisoning by chemicals is a cause of chronic ill health.

Actually, many people are poisoning themselves on a daily basis with alcohol. The symptoms of chronic alcohol intoxication are very similar to the symptoms of chronic poisoning by chemicals — energy levels are markedly impaired, brain does not work properly, one expects to see mood swings, irritability and psychiatric disorders and there is an acceleration of the ageing process. The difference between alcohol poisoning and poisoning by toxic chemicals is that when you stop drinking alcohol the problem goes away. The problem with toxic chemicals such as organophosphates is that they bio-accumulate in the body in fatty departments, particularly cell membranes. Since most metabolic activity in the body takes place on cell membranes then no part of the body is spared. Once you have been poisoned with organophosphates simply stopping the exposure does not stop the damage — it is ongoing for some years subsequently.

So for the person poisoned by chemicals it is not enough just to stop the exposure — one has to put a detoxification regime in place as well. When I do fat biopsies on patients I find organophosphates in their fat and the level is measured in mg/kg — this is the same sort of level that one would measure a drug if one were looking for therapeutic benefits. That is to say we are not talking about tiny doses of pesticides, we are talking about therapeutic levels with the potential to cause great harm.

Simple things like eating a stoneage diet, taking micronutrient supplements help reduce the toxic load. However, I have now done tests of chemical toxicity before and after sauna sweating regimes on enough patients to convince me that the sweating regimes work extremely well. I now consider these an essential part of the treatment of all people who have been poisoned by chemicals in order to prevent ongoing damage.

What do I mean by ongoing damage? In the short term chemical poisoning results in a-chronic fatigue syndrome — i.e. people simply do not have the physical and mental energy to live up to their full potential. In the longer term there is an acceleration of the normal ageing process so that sufferers get diseases before their time. That is why we are seeing farmers who have been poisoned getting their cancer, their heart disease, their allergies, autoimmunity and neurodegenerative conditions at young ages. Put in place supplements, diet and detox regimes and all of this can be slowed down substantially.

If you want to learn the precise details then do come to our AGM on Wednesday, 2nd December at 7.15pm where I will be discussing these issues in more detail.

Very best wishes. Dr Sarah Myhill

The Plough Inn, 40 Market Street, Knighton, Powys LD7 IEY Tel: 01547 528041