BLOOD DISORDERS AND CANCERS RESULTING

 FROM EXPOSURE TO DRUGS,

 CHEMICALS AND RADIATION

By Edward Priestley

INTRODUCTION

The following is from research, investigations and experiences of a sufferer of a serious and often fatal blood disorder Edward Priestley, and his wife Patricia; Patricia is a state registered nurse.

Edward was diagnosed as suffering from severe Aplastic anaemia in April 1986 following exposure to a number of toxic chemicals at his workplace and, although it was not recognised by us at the time, he also suffered several of the documented symptoms of chemical poisoning (memory loss, jaundice, extreme fatigue etc.) in the weeks and months before diagnosis.

We have attempted here to try to throw some light on the often confusing circumstances in which patients of blood disorders and relatives often find themselves. Remarks from the medical profession to us from the first days of Edward's admittance to hospital until his discharge many months later, and afterwards as an out patient, were obviously made to try to discourage us from looking for information on his condition. However this only served to spur us on.

With long periods in hospital, it was impossible for Edward and very difficult for Patricia to investigate causes of conditions like Aplastic Anaemia in any more detail than the sparse information given in most medical dictionaries. Information on prognosis and possible outcome was very difficult to find or glean from the medical profession. Remarks from the medical profession like "you will find it very difficult to discover anything written on the conditions so do not bother to look”, and “if you do find anything you may not like what you find" and many other similar comments and 'advice' made it clear to us that there probably was information that may be worth knowing which may help with treatment and care. It soon became apparent that this was the case and that the information was not going to be given to us. Because Edward was more severely affected and had more serious complications than many who did not survive, there is little doubt that his survival is due in part to the information we found.

During our investigations it became increasingly obvious that serious and often fatal blood disorders resulting from exposure to drugs, chemicals and radiation, with implications that these conditions are precursor conditions to cancers, with public awareness could often be avoided, is the reason for writing. If what we have written prevents just one case or death then the effort will have been worthwhile.

In addition to the information found by  us we have many others to thank for their help both in passing on information they had or finding us information they knew we were seeking. Mr. Dennis Edmundson, with the vast amount of medical papers he has accumulated plus the knowledge he has of many medical matters proved a short cut on many occasions in turning up information which could have taken us days or weeks. Those in the medical profession or connected with the drug or chemical industries, relatives of other victims, are not named for reasons which will become obvious to those who read on. Indeed the concern of some of those in the medical profession, some of whom wept behind closed doors at the unnecessary suffering, constitutes another good reason for writing.

We accept responsibility for any errors, we are not journalists or writers.

E.W.& P.A. Priestley.

November, 1996. Revised and updated  April, 2005

Please note,  medical papers, textbooks and journals used in our investigations are listed at the end of this text.

CONDITIONS

AGRANULOCYTOSIS

More common than Aplastic Anaemia with less damage to the bone marrow and without the reduced levels of red cells and platelets. There is a reduction in Neutrophils which in severe forms is characterised by the onset of severe infections, sore throat, fever and extreme prostration. Agranulocytosis and Aplastic Anaemia, because of the greatly reduced immune system, could be described as AIDS induced by drugs, chemicals or radiation without the presence of the HIV or other virus. Sepsis and death, both with this condition and Aplastic Anaemia, can be rapid. The condition is also called severe Neutropenia and infection may not always be present at the time of diagnosis.

APLASTIC ANAEMIA

Total or very high level destruction of the bone marrow and the most serious of the blood disorders described in medical terminology as Blood Dyscrasias. Levels of all blood cells are severely depressed or absent, red and white cells and platelets. Also called bone marrow depression this condition has a very high mortality rate, death often resulting from overwhelming infection due to lack of white cells or haemorrhage due to lack of platelets. For refernce also see pancytopenia.

HAEMOLYTIC ANAEMIA

Megaloblastic Anaemia, Myelodysplastic Anaemia, Myelofibrisis and several other Anaemia's with the same causes and with various effects reducing the level of red cells without the same effects on white cells and platelets, except in rare cases.

LEUKAEMIA

And other malignancies are mentioned as they are recognised as being of the same causes as the above conditions which are precursor conditions to leukaemia and other cancers.

PARALYSING CONDITIONS

These conditions known also as delayed Neuropathies are mentioned briefly because they have some of the same known causes as the above conditions, we came across this information when investigating the causes of the blood disorders.

THROMBOCYTOPENIA

Reduction in platelets, which can be fatal due to haemorrhaging, is a common reaction to prescribed drugs, chemicals and radiation. As part of Aplastic Anaemia platelets are often the first cells to be reduced due to exposure to a causative agents and bone marrow destruction, and the last to return to normal if there is a recovery, white cells are usually the second cells to recover and platelets last.

CAUSES & EFFECTS

Supporting evidence from medical papers, textbooks and journals

Discussing adverse effects on health of prescribed drugs, toxic chemicals and ionising radiation's is always rather an emotive subject. Therefore to have any credence it is important and necessary to only quote from medical and scientific papers and textbooks written by those who are recognised as experts in their field, we will only quote from these sources.

When Professor G.C. de Gruchy (an internationally recognised haematologist) wrote his book on "Drug Induced Blood Disorders" in 1974 he stated that his main reason for writing was to try to improve the lot of the patient. The wider implications that some blood disorders are far more common than is supposed, and may often go unnoticed and undiagnosed in milder forms by the medical profession, but could still be precursor conditions to cancers, makes wider public awareness important and would also lead to the lot of the patient being improved.

Several we spoke to in the medical profession referred to the situation as regards the causes of the blood disorders following exposure to drugs, chemicals and radiation as a 'Pandora's Box' and, as it happened we had already written exactly that on our files. Like the story of Pandora the blood disorders 'Box' contains many evils and as in the story  'Hope' lies at the bottom of the box if all the evils can be released, hope in the case of the blood disorders being in the form of prevention and better treatment. The only  way to improve the lot of the patient is to open the 'Box', which many said we should leave closed, and let out all the evils. This paper intends to do just that.

From remarks referred to previously by the medical profession to us, it is easy to see why so few we came across had bothered to look for themselves to see if what they were being told by the medical profession was correct. To most of the public the medical profession are on a pedestal and not to be questioned in either their knowledge or ethics. One consultant we saw on television summed up the position when he said that "they (the medical specialists) were not like ordinary mortals but were super intelligent". Whilst much medical research is very specialist, written in words difficult to understand to anyone who can read and look up words that they have not come across before much can understand by common sense and observation, these are attributes not always apparent in the specialists.

A number of statements, information and 'advice' we were given by the medical profession, over the two years or so that Edward was a hospital patient and in the following periods as an out-patient were:

"There are no known drugs or chemicals proved to cause these conditions"

"Do not bandy your condition about"

"There are only about twenty cases of Aplastic anaemia a year in the United Kingdom"

"With such benefits to mankind those adversely affected by the causative agents are acceptable losses"

"There is very little written on these conditions"

"Medical papers on these conditions written outside the United Kingdom are unreliable" (This was said after we produced medical papers written in the United States and elsewhere).

"If you do find anything written on these conditions you may not like what you find"

The above are just a few of the many such remarks we had from the medical profession which we will show were all very inaccurate. Perhaps just one more quote from one consultant after we produced our evidence is appropriate "now you have pieced it all together correctly like a jigsaw what are you going to do with it?"

During 1986 and part of 1987 with stays in four hospitals, mainly to treat infections contracted in hospital, it was impossible for us to obtain any prognosis for Edward's Aplastic Anaemia. It was suggested for a long time that a bone marrow transplant was the only form of treatment likely to be of any help. What did come to light from our investigations was that this was not so, bone marrow transplants for Aplastic Anaemia are very rarely successful, and it is possible to make at least a partial recovery without a transplant. Our first concern was to try to get Edward's blood counts to a level where it was possible for him to survive without blood and platelet transfusions. There are many dangers in transfusions, particularly with repeated ones, and in the event Edward contracted hepatitis C late in 1986 from a transfusion. Hepatitis C is now much publicised with its very high risk of a fatal liver disease developing during the following years. The information necessary to prevent Hepatitis C changing to cancer of the liver is the same as that necessary for survival for aplastic anaemia, the drugs, chemicals and radiation being toxic to the liver also causing destruction of the bone marrow.

Not only did we turn up information that most, if not all, cases of Blood Dyscrasias have known causes but also useful information on the best care of the victim if recovery or partial recovery is to be anything more than chance. Medical papers showed very clearly with examples, that sufferers of these conditions can be very sensitive to future exposures, even years later, so to avoid what the medical profession calls a 'relapse', but which is really a re-exposure to a causative agent, it is necessary to avoid contact with all known causative agents as far as possible. Victims are never given this information, vital for survival, by the medical profession.

The initial first few weeks of conditions like Aplastic Anaemia carry a very high mortality rate, if the victim survives this period there is often a period of stabilisation of the condition but this is often followed by a relapse, often due to a re-exposure, which is almost invariably fatal. It is during the period of stabilisation when the victim is at extremely high risk of a relapse, due to re-exposure to even a very small amount of a causative agent, that the knowledge of identification of the offending agents is vital.

Our medical dictionary (Mosby's 1994) says on Aplastic Anaemia that it may be caused by cancer of the bone marrow or, more commonly, by destruction of the bone marrow by exposure to ionising radiation, toxic chemicals or antibiotics or other medications and that it is a failure of all the blood forming elements in the bone marrow. It also says that an idiopathic (of unknown cause) form is rare. We agree with this, after investigation of many others similarly affected, apart from one or two cases where information on exposure to causative agents was not available we found that there had always been exposure to a known causative agent in the weeks or months before diagnosis. We also noted that victims or their families had little, or in some cases no idea at all, that there were well documented causes and there had certainly been no proper investigation into possible causes by the medical profession. In the odd case where a causative agent had been suggested as a possible cause by the victim or relative, even though the agent suggested was a known causative agent, this had been dismissed by the medical profession.

Bowman and Rand's well known Textbook on Pharmacology says that "most cases of Aplastic Anaemia are caused by drugs or chemicals" and that "ionising radiations have the same effect". Again our investigations into many cases shows that this is correct. This and some other textbooks and some medical papers suggest that there may be two kinds of reaction. One dose related and reversible on withdrawal of the causative agent and the other due to a genetic or individual susceptibility which can be caused by a small exposure and which is unpredictable and often irreversible. Whilst there is some truth that previous exposure to a causative agent can hypersensitise an individual to future exposures a survey  carried out on American troops in World War Two (Custer 1946) in the Pacific showed that this was not the case with thousands of troops given the anti-malarial drug Quinacrine, which is known to cause bone marrow depression. The resulting fifty seven cases of Aplastic Anaemia showed that the effect of the drug was dose related and nothing to do with individual susceptibility or genetic propensity. From our investigations it is certain that many cases put down to individual susceptibility or genetics are in fact due to poor or non-investigation of simultaneous exposure to more than one causative agent. This makes it appear, without further investigation, that a very small amount of one causative agent is responsible when in fact a larger exposure to another agent is the main cause.

Harrison's internationally known book on Internal Medicine sums up the position very well when it says that the percentage of cases where a causative agent is found with Aplastic Anaemia may vary with the vigour with which a causative agent is sought. We agree with this, and might add, in some cases obvious large exposure to a known causative agent was deliberately overlooked.

The importance of seeking out causes for survival and recovery has already been emphasised and has been recognised for many years. We have a French medical journal "Revue de Therapeutiques" dated 1938 which, even at that time, stresses the importance of seeking out the causes of Aplastic Anaemia such as toxic chemicals and radiation.  Given that prevention is always better than cure, seeking out causes of those already affected and highly susceptible to further exposures cannot be in question, but this is unfortunately never done.

Professor G.C. de Gruchy in his book on Drug Induced Blood Disorders notes that the blood disorders due to adverse drug reaction are very important because of the very high mortality rate and that, in cases where a drug is the cause, victims should carry a medical card stating that the offending drug should not be prescribed in future if at all possible. He also mentions that preferably, as so many drugs are documented to cause blood disorders, all drugs should be avoided if possible. He does qualify that this may not be possible as victims are immuno-compromised and are therefore quite likely to contract a life threatening infection. Avoiding contact with people with infections is therefore very important for victims as the side effects of a drug needed to treat the infection may cause a relapse. Professor de Gruchy with his vast experience of many patients over his lifetime observed that over fifty per cent of cases of Aplastic anaemia were caused by drugs, he also mentions chemicals and radiation as important causes. Following our investigations we agree with Professor de Gruchy, around fifty per cent of cases we investigated were caused by prescribed drugs, the other fifty per cent were caused by toxic chemicals or radiation, there are probably no idiopathic cases. As the blood disorders are precursor conditions to leukaemia and other cancers, the question is posed just what percentage of all cases of leukaemia and cancers are also caused by the same agents?

E.M.Davies in his textbook Adverse Drug Reactions observes that with drug induced Aplastic Anaemia the mortality rate is about 70% within five years. We found that 100% of those who knew their condition was caused by drugs did not survive. Virtually all those who knew the cause of their condition, or it was suspected they knew by the medical profession, regardless of what the cause was, did not survive. Death could probably have been prevented in the majority of these cases if the victims had been given the correct medical care and information on how to survive.

There are clear contradictions in some medical papers. Some experts say they cannot trace causes in more than fifty per cent of cases whilst other experts cannot understand why others cannot trace what they see as obvious causes. Here, there is a very strong possibility that it is a case of "those who pay the piper calling the tune". Most medical research and papers are financed by the companies producing and profiting by the known causative agents.

Apart from studies involving large numbers of people which prove beyond any doubt the cause and effect, like the one described previously on American Pacific troops in World War Two given a drug known to cause bone marrow depression, with individual victims the only way to show which medical papers and books are correct is to investigate cases for yourself, which is exactly what we did. Some of these and the circumstances surrounding them are discussed in a later section .

Of the many drugs documented to cause blood disorders, e.g. antibiotics, tranquillisers, diuretics, anti-inflammatory and many others, perhaps the antibiotic Chloramphenicol is the best documented causative agent. This drug was introduced in the United States in 1949 and by 1952 medical papers were appearing implicating the drug as a causative agent of Aplastic Anaemia. It was about this time that the United States also introduced a register of Blood Dyscrasias (there is to our knowledge no such register in the United Kingdom). Although it always proves difficult to get doctors to notify any adverse drug reactions (probably less than 5% in the United Kingdom, The Royal Pharmaceutical Sopciety found 6.3% in one large survey) it proved extremely difficult to get doctors to report serious and fatal blood disorders as adverse reactions to drugs. However, enough cases were notified for it to be impossible to overlook the fact that Chloramphenicol was a cause of Aplastic Anaemia. The proof that this was the case was soon shown when, on knowledge of the very serious side effects of the drug it was used much less often and with greater care which resulted in a dramatic reduction in the total number of cases of Aplastic Anaemia.

The above proof of a cause and effect shows that what we were told by the medical profession, that there are no drugs or chemicals proved to cause Aplastic Anaemia, was untrue. We had already found by this time that being told there was very little written on the subject of blood dyscrasias was also untrue as there are countless medical papers since 1888 written on the subject, this being around the time that many causative agents were being invented and introduced.

The American Journal of Pathology 1949 which includes a section on the effects of radiation on the atomic bomb victims is also positive proof of cause and effect. Page 863 of the Journal shows the cause and effect clearly when it notes looking at those dying in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the third to sixth weeks following the dropping of the bombs and those surviving the clinical symptoms. It states that not only were symptoms of radiation effects like epilation (hair loss) noticed but also the manifestations of aplastic anaemia consequent upon destruction of the bone marrow. Vitamin deficiencies were also noted in the victims. The textbooks and papers mentioned earlier stating that drugs, chemicals and ionising radiation have the same effect were later shown to be accurate when laboratory tests showed exactly the same vitamin deficiencies in victims exposed to toxic chemicals as those observed in the atomic bomb victims. The American Journal of Pathology on the Atomic Bomb Victims also notes that the aplastic anaemia observed in the victims was exactly the same clinically as that caused by drugs.

Bowman and Rand's Textbook on Pharmacology notes that the incidence of cancer in the atomic bomb victims was high, and higher the nearer the victims were to the source of the blast. So we have proof positive with the atomic bomb victims that the nearer the victim was to the source of the blast the higher the degree of bone marrow damage and later corresponding higher levels in the incidence of cancers. This also shows that blood disorders documented to be caused by drugs, chemicals and radiation have the same causes as leukaemia and other cancers, with those with blood disorders severe enough to be diagnosed having a noticeably higher risk of the exposure developing into a malignant condition. A survey done in the USA on 156 cases of severe aplastic anaemia showed a 26 fold incidence of thyroid cancer over the rest of the population. There are similar higher incidences of k eukaemia and other cancers in aplastic anaemia victims.

Benzene is stated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a carcinogen with no known safe level. All medical textbooks and papers that discuss the effects of this chemical agree that benzene causes not only cancers but also blood disorders and leukaemia. It is not surprising therefore that chemicals and drugs containing benzene are documented to cause these conditions and medical textbooks as far back as the 1960's state that the presence of the benzene ring chemical structure implicates a drug as a probable cause of aplastic anaemia and other blood disorders.

Benzene, whilst being the most common cause of blood disorders due to drug and chemical exposure, is not the only offending agent either causing or contributing to these conditions. "Chemistry in Action" by Michael Freemantle states on page 600 that the halogens chlorine, bromine, fluorine and iodine are toxic. These alone and to different degrees can increase the incidence blood disorders as they act synergistically with the chemicals causing the conditions and increase their toxicity. When combined with benzene in drugs it is noted in books on pharmacology that these drugs are the ones best documented to cause blood disorders. Fluorine is the most reactive of these chemicals and it is documented that for example changing chlorine for fluorine in a drug can increase the toxicity and potency of a drug up to 50X. With the phenothiazine anti psychotics the fluoridated Trifluperazine is 25 times as toxic as the chlorinated Chlorpromazine. It is clear here for everyone, but in particular for those who already have a blood disorder, that when chlorine and fluorine are added to tap water the effect of a drug might be greater than that stated in a drug book. With this information we put Edward on bottled spring water. Perhaps it is a good point to note here that the restaurants at Westminster provide taxpayer subsidised bottled spring water  and organic food for members of Parliament.

That drugs may cause leukaemia and other cancers without first causing a blood disorder serious enough to be diagnosed has been touched upon in some books but it seems there is a hesitancy to discuss this problem. That a chemical can cause leukaemia and other cancers without first causing a diagnosed blood disorders is shown very clearly with the chemical lindane, an Organochlorine pesticide. Blood disorders like Aplastic Anaemia are very well documented to be caused by this chemical, letters we have from the Health and Safety Executive and answers we have from questions to Government experts in questions in Parliament all confirm that this is so, and compensation has been paid to victims who could prove a cause and effect. There are also many cases of leukaemia and others cancers caused by this same pesticide and again compensation has been paid to victims. This is evidence again that all the drugs, chemicals and radiation that are documented to cause blood disorders are also capable of causing leukaemia and other cancers.

The University of Texas Aplastic Anaemia Answer Book  1997 states on causes.  “Aplastic anaemia has been clearly linked to radiation, environmental toxins, insecticides and drugs in much the same fashion that cancer has been linked to these agents.

Harrison's Book on' The Principals of Internal Medicine' notes with the drug Phenytoin, used for epilepsy, and which is documented to cause aplastic anaemia, that the drug has been observed to cause lymphatic conditions. The book observes that although the disease regressed in most cases when the patient stops taking the drug, a significant fraction proceeded to develop Hodgkin's disease cancer of the lyphatic system and other cancers, particularly brain cancers. Aplastic amaemia victims have also been observed to have a much higher than normal risk of developing Hodgkin's disease.  

Drug books used by doctors daily when prescribing drugs in the United Kingdom, like the British National Formulary (BNF) written by the British Medical Association and The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, now show in recent editions that with, for example, the drug Chloramphenicol, that not only can the drug cause irreversible Aplastic Anaemia but also this has been observed to lead to leukaemia. It has taken about forty five years for effects other than blood dyscrasias to be admitted even though these effects have been known all those years. It will probably take as long again for the pharmaceutical industry, the medical profession and governments to admit what is obvious, that all drugs that are documented to cause blood dyscrasias can also cause leukaemia and other cancers without always causing a blood disorder serious enough to be diagnosed before the development of a malignancy.

It will be obvious by now to the reader just why blood disorders resulting from exposure to drugs, chemicals and radiation is such a taboo subject because not only are there those seriously or fatally affected with a blood disorder but these blood disorders point to the causes of vast numbers affected by leukaemia and other cancers. Because of the relatively short latent period between exposure and the development of a blood disorder proof of cause and effect is comparatively easy to show and it is this effect that the medical profession, manufacturers of causative agents and governments try to keep from the public at nearly any cost. Generally I found the latent period from exposure to diagnosis with the blood disorders to be from 2 to 7 months. This situation is at the heart of the bribes to the medical profession from the drug and chemical industry which has had so much publicity over recent years .From our own investigations we found that these bribes were very common and they are, of course, sweeteners to the medical profession to prescribe more drugs than is necessary and not inform patients of the side effects.

We now look at evidence that proves that very large numbers of people are being affected, the effects often not being noticed by them and overlooked by the medical profession.

Piscotto wrote in 1969, after taking blood samples from his patients given the drug Phenothiazine, a tranquilliser, that of the 6,200 patients he sampled about 2,000 developed some level of bone marrow damage and leukopenia which, in ordinary circumstances would never have been detected. He also found five cases of agranulocytosis which had not previously been diagnosed and which were probably in the early stages before a serious or fatal infection set in. This survey, it should be noted, is with just one of hundreds of drugs known to cause bone marrow depression, what we do not know is the actual figures of all those affected with all these and other drugs, but it must be a very large number. We also do not know how many of those who have taken a drug known to cause bone marrow damage go on to develop a malignancy which may have been triggered by a drug which may have been taken years before. What cannot be denied is that large numbers are being affected, often unknown to them, and there is more than just coincidence that the increase in the use of drugs, chemicals and radiation coincides with the increase in incidence of cancers in the period since World War Two. Figures for the incidence of leakaemia in the USA confirm a steady and rapid increase in recent decades. The cancer industry is very profitable.

On 11th January 1989, following our investigations into one case of Aplastic Anaemia, questions were asked in Parliament (see Hansard) on causes, numbers affected etc.  It was stated in one answer that over 1,000 cases had been reported associated with nearly 200 prescribed drugs. How many the actual numbers are was not stated as over 1,000 could be any number at all and it must also be borne in mind again that only a very small percentage of adverse drug reactions are ever reported at all. A large survey of patients admitted to hospitals in the U.K. was reported on in The Pharmaceutical Journal of 3rd August 1996 in only 6.3% of those admitted to hospital because of adverse drugs reactions had the adverse drug reactionn been reported. It was also stated by Mr. Roger Freeman, the Government Spokesman on Health at that time, that all cases were thoroughly investigated by the medical profession to try to determine the cause. The stated causes given by the Government experts we found was accurate and we investigated many cases which showed that the victims had been exposed to the causative agents listed by the Government. This was all contrary to what we were told by the medical profession of no known causes etc. The numbers of victims given by Government statistics also showed that the 20 or so cases a year we were told there were by the medical profession was untrue. It may be that Mr. Roger Freeman was told by the medical profession that all cases were investigated to determine a possible cause; but none of the many cases we looked at had any attempt been made to determine a possible cause, including Edward's own case.

We have a letter from the Health and Safety Executive in reply to some enquiries about the possible cause of Edward's illness which lists a number of chemicals documented to cause aplastic anaemia, this list is also correct as we were to find many cases following exposure to the chemicals listed. With individual cases dotted around, investigations as the possible cause is haphazard to say the least, with the expected unreliable conclusions being drawn. The monitoring of the American Pacific troops in World War Two and the atomic bomb victims shows very accurately a clear cause and effect which is often overlooked in individual cases.

Some medical textbooks and papers observe that a virus infection may cause or contribute along with drugs, chemicals and ionising radiation in causing blood disorders. Of the cases we were able to investigate we never came across one case where a virus alone appeared to be the cause. We found one or two cases where a virus was found which signalled the end of medical investigations. We found in these cases there was invariably some exposure to a known causative agent which was either not investigated or overlooked. In one case, which was typical, a drug known to cause bone marrow depression was given to a patient with a virus hepatitis. Ponstan (mefananic acid) known to cause bone marrow depression was given to a patient with a virus hepatitis. The drug was contra-indicated, i.e. discouraged from use, in the BNF drug book for anyone with hepatic impairment so was wrongly prescribed. The rapid and horrific reaction of the patient to the drug culminating in aplastic anaemia showed clearly that there was good reason to suspect that the drug was largely responsible for the fatal blood disorder but this was completely overlooked by the medical profession.

Another incident that shows clearly the cause and effect in numbers affected again with ionising radiation was the accident at Chernobyl. Here again, as with the atomic bomb victims, 31 staff on site at the time near the source of the contamination had their bone marrow destroyed, unsuccessful attempts were made to treat them with bone marrow transplants.

The first medical paper we can trace on aplastic anaemia was written by Paul Ehrlich in 1888 who was at the time experimenting with chemotherapy which carries a high risk of destruction of the bone marrow so he was reporting on cases he had caused.  By 1898 papers had been written on some of the causes but since that time there has been a general suppression of information on the known causes. A over 100 years cover-up which puts the cover-up on the effects of asbestos and tobacco in the shade.

Information that all pesticides can be dangerous is shown in a letter we have, following enquiries about Edward's exposure to these chemicals, from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) which is dated 17th January 1989. The letter states that 'all pesticides by their very nature are a danger to both human health and the environment'. It also states that MAFF do not test pesticides for safety before allowing them for use but assess the manufacturers' data on safety. In the United States it was found that the manufacturers' data had been falsified sometimes. This admittance of pesticides being a danger is not what is trotted out in the press and other media by MAFF and other Government Agencies.

We were sent a batch of research from a professor in Germany which includes information from amongst others, The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson university, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Benzene. It states that Benzene is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant and chronic exposure causes aplastic anaemia, leukaemia and other cancers. As benzene is added to unleaded petrol, drugs, pesticides, herbicides, paints, solvents and may other toxic products it is perhaps not surprising that the professor sending us the material was unable to obtain any further research finance either from his own government or the EU, he sent his best wishes for our endeavours.

Many other papers, books and other sources could be quoted but we hope these included make clear the truth without repeating the same thing from many other sources. In the following section, whilst discussing individual cases we investigated, we will quote from some of these other sources plus it will show the connection in some cases with books and papers already mentioned.

SOME CASES INVESTIGATED AND OBSERVATIONS

Although most of the cases we investigated or came across were different, there were underlying similarities in that symptoms associated with adverse effects of drugs and chemicals, which are documented in medical papers and textbooks, were often experienced by sufferers in the period of weeks and months between exposure and diagnosis. It is the relative short latent period, mostly two to seven months between exposure and symptoms being so severe as to force the sufferer to seek medical help, that makes the causes of blood dyscrasias comparatively easy to spot. Not all victims experienced all the symptoms but many suffered one or more of those documented in medical literature. In the case of some where relatives were found after the death of a victim, no symptoms could be ascertained but as many of those we investigated noted, they had not realised at the time that the symptoms were connected with their condition and were a possible warning of a more serious condition to follow. Indeed, due to the often neurotoxic affects of the causative agents including confusion and memory loss as symptoms often experienced before and during the early stages of the illness after diagnosis, obtaining a history at the time that these symptoms are most apparent can be difficult. Although by no means all the victims remembered having a rash, this is a well documented symptom which often precedes the diagnosis of a serious blood disorder. Edward and several others we investigated did experience rashes prior to diagnosis. Other repeating symptoms in those we investigated were, nausea, jaundice (due to toxic liver overload), extreme fatigue, breathlessness (just before diagnosis due to severe anaemia) impotence and headaches. These are all well documented effects of drug, chemical and radiation exposure.

Starting with Edward's Aplastic Anaemia following exposure to a number of toxic chemicals at his work in the water industry he experienced some of the above symptoms from about six months before diagnosis with some confusion, memory loss, severe jaundice in the later stages, rashes and inability to concentrate. During this period Edward also lost nearly 100% hearing in one ear and also developed tinnitus overnight. Drugs like aspirin which are documented to cause aplastic anaemia are also documented to cause hearing loss with tinnitus as can the toxic chemicals causing aplastic anarmia.  Although Edward saw specialists about his sudden loss of hearing and tinnitus they said there was little they could do about it, did not know the reason for it, and failed to pick up that it could have been caused by a drug or toxic chemical and be a symptom of a more serious condition.to follow. Edwards other symptoms, dizziness some memory loss etc were therefore at this time thought by us to be connected to his sudden hearing loss and not connected to the symptoms of the far more serious condition diagnosed later. No tests were carried out by the hospital into possible causes of the hearing loss.

Initially after diagnosis there was intense searching by the medical profession for a possible cause, diagnosis took about ten days after hospital admission. Then, with no explanation, the searching stopped, before any cause was established, and we were told by a consultant "not to bandy Edward's condition about".

A list of the chemicals Edward came into contact with at work was supplied later by his employers, the water industry, but it was admitted in a letter accompanying the list that the list was not complete as "labels had fallen off the drums of chemicals and these had been destroyed" This sort of thing happened many times in other cases we investigated. Edward does remember two chemicals not included on the list but we do not have the brand names, one was an industrial solvent and the other an insecticidal/fungicidal liquid used in a power washer, both of these chemicals could well have been implicated as possible causes. Although a complete list of chemicals Edward worked with could have been supplied but was not, his employers denied withholding this information was a cover-up. As a complete list of chemicals has never been supplied to either us or the medical profession who were supposed to be investigating possible causes of Edward's condition it is clear that no proper investigation took place.

A copy of a letter we have dated 9th September 1986 from Hammersmith Hospital, where Edward was a patient at that time, to the Halifax hospital where he was first diagnosed, sums up his medical history from diagnosis and remarks that "although no cause for Edward's condition was found he was exposed to a number of chemicals at his work". Those writing this letter at Hammersmith would have no idea perhaps, that there had been no proper search for a possible cause at Halifax.

It is of interest to note that on the incomplete list of chemicals Edward came to contact with at work were herbicides, like Agent Orange (as used in the Vietnam war - for which thousands of the American troops exposed have been paid compensation). There are also toxic chemicals on the list supplied by Chipman Chemicals of which Mr. Denis  Thatcher is a director. There is, perhaps, a conflict of interests here with a Prime Minister's husband supplying products to a government owned industry and this may be another reason why investigations into the possible causes of Edward's condition were mysteriously dropped and us being told "not to bandy his condition about "  It is of interest of the very few Edward worked with that used the chemicals there was another case of delayed neuropathy whose consultant asked him if he had been exposed to chemicals and a sudden death in another worker following the spraying of a tip with insecticides. Heart conditions are also documented to be caused by the same agents causing aplastic anaemia, yet another cover-up.

During 1986/87 Edward spent long periods in four hospitals, two in Halifax, Leeds General and Hammersmith, London, with severe aplastic anaemia complicated by some life threatening infections contracted whilst in these hospitals. He also contracted several other serious infections including septicaemia which were life threatening in addition to which he had many episodes of haemorrhage, some spontaneous and internal, which could have proved fatal. In late 1986 he contracted Hepatitis C through a blood transfusion, this virus carries the high risk of developing into a fatal liver disease in subsequent years. Many of these complications and infections were due to poor hospital care and may well have contributed to making the aplastic anaemia more severe for a longer period as drugs for the infections were documented to cause aplastic anaemia. The drugs to treat these conditions have certainly caused Edward’s muscle, tendon and joint problems that have left him disabled.

The Aspergillus Pneumonia contracted at Leeds General was from a leukaemia patient who was known to have the infection. Edward was given a course of an 'experimental' drug to treat the Aplastic Anaemia (the drug has now been withdrawn with no explanation) Antilymphocyute Immunoglobulin from horse serum which is, or was before it's withdrawal, used to try to stop transplant rejection by lowering the immune system to near zero. At the end of this course of the drug whilst Edward's immune system was still very low the leukaemia patient with aspergillus pneumonia was sent by hospital staff to play chess with him. It was inevitable that, with Edward having no effective immune system at the time he would contract the infection.

There is little doubt that his many months at Hammersmith following this episode with no alternative but to treat him with a drug effective against the Aspergillus, but which is unfortunately also documented to cause aplastic anaemia, contributed greatly towards delaying any recovery of his bone marrow. The drug he was treated with for the aspergillus was Amphotericin, which was probably the best drug for the infection but is documented to cause aplastic anaemia.  For months he had to have such high levels of the drug to treat the infection neglected  by Leeds General this is one probable reason why Edward's blood counts have taken about eighteen years to return to normal levels.

It was a similar story with the Septicaemia, whilst two hospitals, Halifax and Hammersmith, disagreed who should take out Edward's second Hickman line which he had in for about six months and was no longer in regular use (a Hickman line is a plastic tube inserted into a vein near to the heart with the tube coming out of the chest with valves and is used to insert drugs, transfusions, take blood samples etc.) and is always a possible source of infection. He contracted Septicaemia in the line which entailed a further two weeks in hospital. As Edward had already had many weeks in hospital with drips inserted in periods when he had no Hickman line most of his veins had collapsed so the two weeks were a painful one with often many attempts having to be made to insert a cannula that sometimes only lasted a few hours. Patricia, being a SRN, had warned over several weeks of the danger of septicaemia if the line was not removed, so it was particularly annoying when this happened. Again drugs for septicaemia are very toxic so infections like this should be avoided if at all possible in those particularly at risk of side effects.

When he was first admitted to hospital and after diagnosis Edward was visited by a member of the hospital staff who said he should enjoy his relative comfort at that time as he was in for "a very rough ride". Poor hospital care and inappropriate treatment for victims of aplastic anaemia we found in our investigations was not unusual and was obviously known by the senior member of the hospital staff warning Edward what he was to expect.

Through the period described above in 1986 and 1987 Edward was often very ill, spent much time in hospitals, often in isolation for long periods, so it was difficult for us to make any headway on researching or investigating other victims, however a few other cases of aplastic anaemia were observed by us and we were able to speak to a few victims.

At Halifax, during Edward's two weeks or so on admission to hospital and diagnosis we observed no other victims but we did later when he returned to Halifax from Hammersmith as an out patient.

At Leeds General during May and part of June 1986 we observed two other sufferers of aplastic anaemia one (Case no. 2) (Edward being No 1) was a very mild case without complications and which resolved in a week or two. The disorder in this case followed an African trip by the young man affected who had taken an anti-malarial drug. These drugs, as already mentioned in the large scale survey of American Pacific troops in World War Two are very well known to cause Aplastic anaemia.

The second case we observed at Leeds was a severe case (Case no. 3) and was a timber worker. We did not realise it at the time but the chemicals used in timber treatment are also well  documented to be causative agents. These chemicals were to crop up many times later as causative agents in some of the cases we investigated, causing not only blood dyscrasias but also leukaemia and other cancers.

Following Edward's transfer to Hammersmith in May 1986 he was in isolation, in Room 201 Ward B5, for several months with the severe Aplastic anaemia and Aspergillus Pneumonia. Although it was impossible to do any investigations during this period there was one case of Aplastic anaemia we observed (Case no. 4). The victim was not actually seen by us but was in the next isolation room to Edward at Hammersmith Hospital and we could not help gathering through overhearing staff conversations some of the circumstances about this victim before he died.  It appears that he was a trainee doctor who had been taking a drug in some trials for a pharmaceutical company when he developed the aplastic anaemia. This was confirmed later when his case was mentioned in a book called 'The Health Conspiracy - How doctors, the drug industry and the Government undermine our health" by Dr. Joe Collier, a lecturer in pharmacology. at a London teaching hospital.  News reports in 1997 covered deaths of several university students and compensation paid to some victims of drug side-effects after taking part in trials for the pharmaceutical industry.

On transfer of Edward to an open ward at Hammersmith with periods at home and back several times with infections and other complications a few other victims of aplastic anaemia were observed, two of whom we were able to investigate as we were able to speak to them at some length. One (Case no.5) in which the cause was not in question had followed a period when the sufferer, a middle aged woman, had been prescribed the arthritic drug Brufen which is documented to cause blood disorders. This woman had several bone marrow transplants from an identical twin sister but still died. This told us that there was more than just having a good HLA match in the problems of a successful transplant. Transplant rejection is often due to pre transplant blood transfusions causing sensitisation and rejection in aplastic anaemia patients which is not such a problem in leukaemia patients.

The other case (Case no. 6) was also Aplastic anaemia and was a man of about 30 years. The illness followed a period when he had worked sticking floor tiles down with a solvent adhesive. We had contact with this man both in and out of hospital for some time but have now lost touch after he moved house so we do not know the outcome of the illness. In this case the cause and effect of the benzene related substance in the solvent adhesive, Toluene, which is documented to cause aplastic anaemia was at first investigated and given as the cause by the medical profession. Then, with no explanation given him, he was told that he was to forget the solvent adhesive as the cause. This was a similar experience to ours when Edward was first diagnosed and the search for a cause was abandoned before a cause was found with no explanation given, and then us being told to not bandy Edward's condition about. The victim in this case, like us, was well aware that all was not as it should be with regards to admitting the cause and the often inappropriate medical treatment given.  Internationally recognised researchers at the present time, since year 2000, still write papers saying benzene related chemicals do not appear to cause aplastic anaemia which flys in the face of all the internationally recognised textbooks like The Martindale which state they do. I found no difficulrty in finding sufferers following exposure to these chemicals.

A fund had been started by friends and relatives whilst Edward was a patient at Leeds General Hospital, to help patients locally and we eventually raised several thousand pounds with which we bought many items, televisions, bed chairs for victims or relatives staying overnight in hospital with very sick patients and many other items to help make life a little more bearable for the victims. This fund was accidentally instrumental in us contacting a number of victims who we were able to talk to at length and investigate the possible causes of their conditions.

Having no way of contacting other sufferers, except perhaps in hospitals, there seemed little or no prospect of finding out if what we had been told by the medical profession was correct, i.e. that there were only about 20 or so cases a year in total in the United Kingdom and no known causes. We needed the information from other victims or relatives to find out if there were any at all that had been as severely affected as Edward who had survived or recovered, in order to get some idea of Edward's chance of survival. It very soon became apparent that there were far more sufferers that the twenty or so a year in total we had been told by the medical profession as victims and relatives began to contact us through publicity of the fund in the press. Patricia named the fund The Bone Marrow Disease Fund.

The first person to contact us through the Fund publicity was again a case of Aplastic anaemia (Case no.7) where again there was no question by the medical profession as to the cause which was prolonged chemo/radiotherapy for cancer, Cancer treatment chemicals and radiation  are amongst the most common and well known causes of blood disorders. The victim, a woman in middle age with breast cancer died about a year after we met her

The Fund had not been going very long before we encountered some opposition and pressure from some in the medical profession and from a leukaemia charity to stop our help and support of victims and relatives which included leukaemia patients, this condition having the same causes as the blood disorders like aplastic anaemia. The connection between these conditions are often confused by the medical profession and we came across aplastic anaemia patients who thought they had leukaemia and had been told so incorrectly by their doctors. Although the blood disorders like aplastic anaemia have the same causes as leukaemia they are not malignant and although there is a high risk they will eventually become malignant not all undergo this change. The opposition to our Fund was to go on until it was eventually wrapped up a few years later .Pressure was put on hospital staff not to accept help from us for the victims and relatives but we still managed to help buy some medical equipment as well as comforts for victims and relatives. One reason given for the opposition to our fund was that we were diverting funds from research into possible cures and should not be concerning ourselves with support for victims and their families and prevention of the conditions for which we knew the causes in most cases.

As medical charities are controlled by the medical profession and therefore the drug and chemical industries and it is they that actually cause the vast majority of blood disorders, leukaemia and other cancers so it is perhaps not surprising we experienced such opposition from those profiting by causing the conditions and then profiting again by the treatment. Prevention and the best care and treatment cannot be achieved without informing the public and victims of the causes which is the very information the drug, chemical and nuclear industries, the medical profession and governments want to keep from the public.

The next person to contact us, again through the Fund (Case no. 8) was the family of a young woman from a nearby town who had moderate to severe aplastic anaemia. On investigation she had a virus infection diagnosed but also had used considerable amounts of wood treatment chemicals in a house she and her fiancee had bought. She experienced some of the symptoms documented to be caused by the chemicals in the period preceding diagnosis of the aplastic anaemia which pointed to these chemicals being responsible for her condition. There was no investigation by the medical profession as to the possible cause and the case was probably wrongly put down to being idiopathic (of unknown origin). or due solely to the virus.  To our knowledge, following a critical period after diagnosis, this young woman is alive and well and she and her family have some information from us on care and prevention of a relapse. Also in this case we noted, as with Edward, the victim went on to develop long term severe bone and joint problems and she had a knee joint repaired. It was admitted by the medical profession to us that Edward's severe joint problems was caused by long term effects of the drugs he was given in hospital; the problems started about eighteen months after diagnosis of the Aplastic anaemia. We were refused information as to which drugs had caused the problem but now feel sure that Hydrocortisone was one responsible, given in large doses daily for long periods in 1986/7 before platelet transfusions, in order to dampen down Anaphylactic reactions. This drug is documented to cause Osteoporosis as a side effect. Also the drugs Edward had for speicaemia can cause muscle and tendon damage. 

A woman in middle age (Case no. 9) was the next to contact us, again through the fund, she was another aplastic anaemia victim and identical to case (No.5) reported earlier with treatment of the same non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug which is documented to cause aplastic anaemia. This woman also died. There was again no question by the medical profession as to the cause of the aplastic anaemia but this did not cause death directly, death being put down to an accidental overdose of tablets. This was not accurate as the woman rang us up before she died and was in an obvious suicidal mood which was in part due to not only her long term painful illness but also largely due to very poor treatment by some medical staff. It should be emphasised here that many of the sufferers we traced who knew, or it was known by the medical profession that they knew or suspected the cause of their condition did not survive, this remained true with all the subsequent cases we investigated. Treatment with these conditions, especially if the victim knows or suspects the cause, is not, to say the least, very good; to the point where they may be driven to suicide. This was the first case we had come across where a victim took their own life but many were driven to the brink.

The upsetting of aplastic anaemia patients who perhaps know too much can be subtle as well as cruel. i.e. taking twenty or so very agressive attempts to put in a cannula for a drip leaving the arm covered in bruises.  In one instance when Patricia who lived for long periods in accommodation near Hammersmith Hospital rang from Halifax when she had to go back home to sort a few things out for a few days. Without telling Edward that Patricia had rung him Hospital staff told Patricia Edward did not want to speak to her ever again and put the phone down on her. Patricia rushed down the 200 miles to London in a very upset condition to find out what was going on to find Edward puzzled why she had not rung and was unable to contack her because she was of course on her way to find out why staff had said he did not want to speak to her.

In another similar instance Patricia on returning from Halifax to London rang Edward to sort out a room at the Hospital which has dozens of rooms to let for nurses or patients relatives for a few days. Edward was on drugs for yet another hospital induced infection but ambulant so went to the office on that wing to arrange a room for one night at least as Patricia would not be arriving until the evening after dark and the Hammersmith is not the sort of area you want to be looking for accommodation in the dark, next door to Wormwood Scrubs Prison etc.  An hour or so before Patricia was due to arrive staff sent a message that unfortunately no room was available we would have to sort out our own accommodation. Understandably Edward was upset at this as he had no time to sort out alternative accommodation for Patricia and went to the hospital accommodation block to to see if he could find out if all the rooms were really full. Fortunately he found the caretaker immediately who said he had had no request for a key for a room and most of the rooms, dozens of them, were empty awaiting occupants. On returning to the wing office Edward reported what he had found but was still not offered a room or key.  On threatening to throw the typewriter through the window if a key was not forthcoming and quick, a key was immediately handed over. A doctor at Hammersmith warned us that there were people in there prepared to try to break up a marriage to stop investigations into aplastic anaemia. We believed him and similar episodes like those just related had no effect on us in the furture including similar incidents at Halifax Hoapitals.

Another woman in middle age was the next to contact us (Case no. 10) again through the Fund, she was diagnosed Myelodysplastic anaemia, a condition with the same documented causes as aplastic anaemia but affecting red cells and not so much the white cells or platelets. In this case the dangers of subsequent exposures even years after the initial exposure was highlighted. These cases are without doubt many of those said to be caused by genetic or individual susceptibility, by the medical profession. Whilst the description may not be a complete untruth, the fact is the victim has been hyper sensitised by one exposure to future exposures.

In this particular case the woman had a moderate and seemingly irreversible anaemia following exposure to a large amount of industrial solvent used to clean paint spilt on a carpet. Although the treatment for anaemia was of no help the problem was not incapacitating to a large degree and did not require transfusions. As usual there had been no investigation, or history taken, by the medical profession to try to sort out the cause and therefore correct treatment for the anaemia was not thoroughly investigated. About ten years later, whilst still suffering from the anaemia, the woman used large amounts of wood preservatives on fences and a garden shed and sprayed some fruit trees with an insecticide. These exposures, again not  noticed or investigated by the medical profession, were followed by a dramatic collapse of the bone marrow leading to diagnosis of the Myelodysplastic anaemia.

When the woman later showed her consultant how we had worked out the causes of her condition, he admitted that our conclusions were correct and he had not noticed before that these chemicals caused the blood disorders; he commented that he had just had two young men die from leukaemia after exposure working with these chemicals. After this episode of collapse of the bone marrow the woman was never able to get off blood transfusions and further exposure's to causative agents during a trip to Africa which we warned her against led to even worse depression of the bone marrow with both white cells and platelets now affected. The condition ended with a fatal infection after we visited here on a trip to the U.K  It was very sad that the woman now realised that we, and not her doctors, were right to warn her not to go to Africa and take antimalarial drugs documented to cause aplastic anaemia and also planes were sprayed with insecticides like linane at that time to kill any disease carrying ones spreading to other countries.

Someone we knew put us in touch with the next case we investigated, this was a woman in middle age (Case no. 11) who suffered moderate anaemia and very bad allergies, allergies are sometimes documented to follow blood dyscrasias and bone marrow and immune system damage. When we met her this woman she had been ill for about 30 years, her health problems and anaemia had followed a period at her work when she was exposed to benzene several times a week. Numerous doctors and specialists had tried to investigate her health problems over the years, none of whom had been of any help. She was finally sent to an allergy specialist who suggested that the only way she could live without the allergic effects was to live in a plastic bubble away from all pollutants.

Through all the years of investigations and unsuccessful treatments, which included operations which found nothing, not one doctor had thought to obtain a history about the onset of the illness which followed the benzene exposure, it took us about ten minutes to elicit a history. The severity of the woman's allergies can be gauged from the fact she could not drink or even wash in tap water because of the added chemicals or pollutants finding there way into the water, as they caused her to break out in rashes. She drank distilled water from glass bottles as even the minute traces from bottled water in plastic bottles affected her, she did find some local spring water in which to wash without having a reaction. Although the last time we saw this woman she was still suffering multiple allergies she was improved because of the knowledge of the cause of her condition.

This lady lived near some large chemical works we thought that this may not be helping her condition so we asked if she had ever been away from the area since she became ill, she only once when she and her husband went to Portugal for 2 weeks and during the second week she began to feel quite well. At our suggestions she booked another 2 week holiday, again in Portugal. On return she reported that during the second week she began to feel better than she had done for many years.

Edward's own experience of allergies which he started to develop about 15 months after he was diagnosed is similar to this woman's in that an item of food, drink or environmental pollutant exposure, such as paints, trigger off a reaction which can take about ten days to subside. This can make identification of things that cause a reaction difficult as the effects of exposure to one offending agent can overlap the effects of another leading to constant reaction like headache, sickness etc. with the sufferer not sure just which agent is causing the problem. We came across others similarly affected with allergies following exposure to drugs and chemicals which are documented to cause bone marrow and immune system damage. many of whom had not been so seriously affected as to have a diagnosed blood disorder. This paper was written in the early 1990’s and since then Edawrd’s allergies have all but disappeared.

Although rather a taboo subject  in the media we did notice  from time to time some reports of aplastic anaemia in the press, One article in The Observer reported on the giving to third world children a drug which was banned in the West and is documented to cause aplastic anaemia. This and several other news items suggested that victims of aplastic anaemia may be being used as human guinea pigs in medical and military experiments.

This was confirmed in one case of Aplastic anaemia we investigated,when the words "Guinea Pig" were observed written in the victims hospital medical notes .When questioned why this was written in the notes by relatives the answer, after some hesitation, from the hospital staff was they wanted to know if the victim had ever kept Guinea pigs. No medical papers of the hundreds written on the subject have any mention that there is any evidence that contact with Guinea pigs has any connection with blood disorders and there is no such connection. It  does however show the disregard some in the medical profession have for the victims of these conditions.

Because the blood Dyscrasias are deliberately caused by chemical and  nuclear weapons and the conditions are precursor to cancers there is naturally much interest in the victims of these conditions for both medical and military purposes.. Much has been exposed now of the deliberate contamination of the public with nuclear products to observe the effects on large numbers of people as well as feeding radioactive products in meals to hospital patients, injecting nuclear products into the placentas of pregnant women to observe the effects on the baby after birth.etc.

Anyone looking at the research papers written on Aplastic anaemia cannot fail to observe that the researchers often note a difference in the incidence and effects of many drugs on different ethnic groups and medical and military research has been carried out on large numbers of people into the possibility of producing viable ethnic chemical  weapons. During the 1980's it was exposed that large numbers of babies heads from India were being shipped to hospitals in twenty three Western nations for experiments into the  possibility of producing these weapons which would be selective of race. Research Edward was involved with at Hammersmith into genetics and transplant rejection could have also been used to help make ethnic chemical weapons and this hospital was one of those publicised as using pregnant women in experiments, Whilst Edward was an out patient  staff exclaimed to us their horror of what went on there and their being powerless to do anything. There is also a considerable amount of evidence to show that where insufficient number of victims with conditions like aplastic anaemia are available for the use for medical or military experiments that the conditions are being induced deliberately to create the human guinea pigs wanted by the experimenters by deliberately exposing numbers of people to known causative agents, creating the  necessary human Guinea Pigs.

In addition to those we were finding with a diagnosed condition, we found far greater numbers who had no diagnosed condition but who had been exposed to a lesser amount of a causative agent and who were suffering long term debilitating illness. These effects like allergies, extreme fatigue, headaches, sickness, diarrhoea, rashes, anorexia and many other similar conditions are all documented as symptoms of chronic exposure to the causative agents of the blood disorders. There are also far larger numbers of people suffering blood disorders with less damage to the bone marrow than aplastic anaemia, conditions like thrombocytopenia, lowered platelet levels. Because there was rarely if ever any investigation by the medical profession into the causes of these conditions many were told that their problems were "all in the mind" and in many cases drugs for psychosis were prescribed. This invariably made their conditions worse as tranquillising drugs contain the same or similar chemicals to those causing their illness in the first place and are documented to cause the serious and fatal blood disorders which are pre-cancerous. We have never met one person who was told in advance by a doctor that such drugs can have serious or fatal side effects and if such an effect occurs the victim is never made aware of the cause. Additional information, in 2001 we found someone warned by his doctor  that his epilespey drug could cause aplastic anaemia, the only such case we have ever come across.

We had a Leukaemia researcher visit us who was looking at cases of Aplastic anaemia who said she may be able to help us. She asked some questions nothing to do with aplastic anaemia or other blood disorders and we got the impression that she was only fishing to see what we knew. We showed her a number of questionnaires designed by us to send to victims or relatives which we had got back all showing exposures to known causative agents the forms filled in with no prompting from us. She looked alarmed at what we had and did admit that she had interviewed several of the same victims as us and had noticed the exposure to known causative agents as we had, This 'charity' was the same one  mentioned earlier causing us some hassle to stop our fund for victims. One disturbing fact that came to light was that multinational chemical and drug companies had obtained names and addresses of victims of aplastic anaemia and leukaemia which would explain anonymous threats some victims and relatives received. The most likely source of the leak of this information, we think, is though medical charities and research organisations which seem to have access to information on victims from hospitals. Patients would never suspect that giving permission for their hospital notes etc to be used for research into cures that the information could be misused We were on the receiving end of some anonymous threats ourselves.

Following one article Edward wrote in the local press on Aplastic anaemia and its causes a man (Case no. 12) contacted us from London after his sister had sent him a copy of the article. It transpired that he had been diagnosed as having aplastic anaemia in the 1940's after exposure to mercury at his work, mercury is a known causative agent. His was a very mild case which resolved after a few blood transfusions and he had no complications, even so he was the first we had found who had survived a long time. It was unusual that this case knew the cause of his illness but from what we gathered he had not spoken to anyone about his condition before.

The next person to get in touch with us was a teacher (No.13) who had been diagnosed as having severe Aplastic anaemia a few months before he contacted us through another victim, He taught model making  lessons every day which was also his hobby he was therefore exposed to  uncontrolled  high levels of known causative agents.There are similar cases noted in medical papers. Professor Edward Gordon-Smith notes in one medical paper that solvent abusers are at a higher risk than normal of developing a blood disorder and confirming this one of the answers we had to the questions asked in Parliament on 11th January, 1989, states that solvent abusers have been observed to develop aplastic anaemia. We have now lost contact with this victim who was very ill during the two years or so we were in touch so we do not know the outcome. His wife was made aware of how best to look after him to help him survive and recover.

The next case (No.14) was one not investigated directly by us, but reported by a neighbour,. It is included as it was one of many similar cases we found and was also reported in other cases in the press.. This was a fatal blood disorder following the injection of gold salts for arthritis. Gold is one of the best documented causes of blood disorders but again where it was prescribed no warning was ever given of the possible side effects. In one press report the family of a woman being given gold injections begged the doctors to stop because of the terrible effects it was having but more injections were given; and the woman died of aplastic anaemia.

Case (Case no.15) came to us following a newspaper article by Edward in the local press which mentioned arthritic drugs as a cause of aplastic anaemia and other blood disorders.  This was another woman prescribed the same drug as a previous case (No.9). Her experience was that of many, she became moderately anaemic was rushed into hospital, her arthritic drug withdrawn with little explanation given, she was given a few blood transfusions and then discharged about three weeks later. For every case of a definite blood disorder being diagnosed which usually ended fatally we found substantially large numbers like this one with either what appears to be a full or a partial recovery. In most cases there seems to be a poorer level of health after an apparent recovery of the bone marrow. Aplastic anaemia and other blood disorders are, it seems, only the tip of a very big iceberg as far as the total numbers of those less severely affected.

Chance paid a large part in our contacting the next victim (Case no. 16) or his relatives as he had died of aplastic anaemia. Someone moving from another town to our area who knew the family put us in touch with them. The victim was a teenager who on investigation had had a small exposure at his work to a chemical documented to cause aplastic anaemia, in this case the chemical was aniline; In another case we found (not reported here) compensation was paid when aniline was implicated in a case of aplastic anaemia and after we supplied the victim documented effects of the chemical

The victim in this case had not had large exposure to the chemical but was just recovering from hepatitis when he was prescribed the drug Ponstan (Mefemanic acid) for headaches. The drug was at the time and still is contra-indicated in the BNF drug  for patients with hepatic impairment so was wrongly prescribed. His reactions to the drug were rapid and severe and it was withdrawn by his doctor following this reaction and the remainder not taken retrieved from the parents after the victim was admitted to hospital. There was a point where it was denied by the medical profession that the drug had ever been prescribed but production of a copy of the prescription proved it had. In this case, the family is still, years later, waiting for an official explanation and report from the hospital. on the cause of death.

Like most others we contacted or contacting us the family had little idea that there are well documented causes of these conditions and again there had been no investigation by the medical profession. This case brought us through family connections two very useful sources of information , Professor G.C.de Gruchy's book  'Drug Induced Blood Disorders'. and Bowman and Rands Pharmacology.

Although it could be claimed that there was more than one possible cause of the aplastic anaemia in this case, a chemical, an infection and a drug there are several things that point to the drug as being the principal cause. First the drug is documented in Martindale's Extra Pharmacopoeia (an internationally recognised book) to cause bone marrow depression.  prescribe from Secondly the drug was contra-indicated in the British National Formulary, which also lists blood disorders as a side effect of the drug.  Thirdly there was the, to be expected, severe reaction to the drug, which was why it was contra-indicated, followed by symptoms leading up to hospital admission and diagnosis of aplastic anaemia. (additional note - the BNF Sept 1997 now states Ponstan as a definite cause of aplastic anaemia). Circumstances surrounding the case also suggest that the medical profession were aware of the cause and that an error in prescribing had been made which was then covered up.

This case had the shortest latent period between exposure and diagnosis we had come across but this was due to the drug being contra indicated and there are similar and even shorter ones documented in medical papers like the  atomic bomb victims who were only 2 to 3 weeks. Once again, contrary to assurances given by the Government to the questions asked in Parliament on 11th January, 1989 there was no investigation as to the causes in this case. It is possible that the small chemical exposure and the infection potentiated the effects of the drug.

A relative (Case no. 17) was the next person contacting us, she had a serious bone marrow condition which on investigation we found followed the prescription of a drug known to  cause the condition.  Although on being given information from us she made a partial recovery she was never very well again and died about three years after diagnosis. She had several transfusions but her bone marrow did not recover to a great degree. The disorder developed after she was prescribed the drug Benzyl Penicillin for a suspected virus infection. Medical textbooks make it quite clear that there is an increased risk of a side effect developing if someone suffering from a virus infection is exposed to a causative agent of bone marrow depression, what is called a synergistic effect. Antibiotics are not effective against virus infections so should probably only be given to those suffering from a virus if they develop a secondary infection which will respond to an antibiotic.

The relative had the same local haematology specialist as Edward who, on realising they had the same name and were related immediately stated that the conditions were similar which showed that the causes of these disorders were genetic and must run in the family. No other member of the family has, to date, suffered from a blood dyscrasia. This went on for several months, the consultant becoming more and more dogmatic that the causes were genetic. It would have been amusing to see his face when eventually the relative, who could only keep from laughing with difficulty, pointed out the cause could not be genetic as she was only related by marriage. What this does show, is that the conditions are indeed of the same causes which are documented in medical papers, drugs, chemicals and radiation, also it shows the zeal with which the medical profession try to place the cause of some conditions on anything but the true cause. It was the same consultant that, after telling Edward that there were no known causes of blood dyscrasias, walked off angrily when Edward took his BNF drug book out of his pocket and opened it at pages which documented several drugs to have aplastic anaemia as a side effect.

Contra to the normal none coverage of the conditions in the media there followed a period of some publicity of conditions like aplastic anaemia, leukaemia and other cancers resulting from exposure to timber treatment chemicals, Lindane being the most common offending chemical. The Observer newspaper and Anglia Television covered the story in some detail with the Observer running an article on the cover-up on the adverse effects of the chemicals by manufacturers and the Government. Names of some victims suffering aplastic anaemia and leukaemia were given by us and we helped with some information to both press and television. Investigative journalists expressed their astonishment that with so much medical and scientific evidence and so many victims anyone could doubt that there was any question over a cause and effect. The London Hazards Centre was involved and they had several hundred victims contacting them. The publicity and obvious cover-up was enough to get several hundred MP's to sign a petition calling for a ban on some of the offending chemicals, and finally after many years and countless needless deaths and untold suffering the United Kingdom followed many other nations in banning the chemicals for some purposes including treatment of house timbers.

Although in most cases following exposure to the timber treatment chemicals it is not possible to convince a court of law of a cause and effect, for example how can you prove that a teenager who dies of aplastic anaemia following treatment of a house, has not been abusing solvents, an activity which is documented to cause the same condition. However proof positive is possible if a gas chromatography test is performed and shows what chemicals and at what level  have been absorbed following exposure. This shows as surely as it did with the atomic bomb victims and other surveys done on large numbers of victims that there is no doubt as to the cause and effect.

Out-of-court compensation has been paid to victims of aplastic anaemia and cancers due to the treatment of house timbers where it was difficult for the defence to confuse the possible causes and at least one haematology department at a Liverpool Hospital with an article in the Haematology Journal in 1990 noted a number of patients they had with aplastic anaemia who had been exposed to Lindane after they did gas chromatography tests. Investigations by us show that other haematology departments throughout the United Kingdom had numbers of sick and dying patients suffering blood disorders and leukaemia following their exposure to timber treatment chemicals. In more than one case there was more than one person in a treated house affected, in one house there was aplastic anaemia and cancer victims and in another two died of leukaemia. In other cases not fully investigated but of interest there were three people in one house with leukaemia and in another five in a large household with cancer. In the later case the medical profession once again said the cause must be genetic but one of the five was not a family relative living in the same house.

In one case a consultant said he could not believe these chemicals caused aplastic anaemia and leukaemia as they had had their house treated a few years before and they were not ill. A short time after this the consultants wife was diagnosed with leukaemia! In one house with more than one affected a baby of the family moving into the house after it was sold developed a brain tumour about one year later. Harrison's Principals of Internal Medicine notes with the drug phenytoin used to treat epilepsy that not only does it cause aplastic anaemia and Hodgkin's Disease but also other cancers in particular brain tumours. Many cases we investigated we were told of similar cases of others being affected, all ignored by the medical profession.

The history of the benzene related pesticide, the Organochlorine Lindane, is interesting. It was first made by Michael Faraday in 1834 but it was not used as an insecticide until after the second World War. The first scientific paper we have on the chemical is in an American Journal of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry dated 6th October, 1951 in which it was observed at that early date, shortly after it was introduced, that in addition to many other symptoms it could cause blood disorders.

Michael Faraday at one time in his career suffered some of the documented symptoms of Benzene and/or Lindane exposure with severe memory loss and confusion bad enough to stop him lecturing for a time. It should be noted that when doing the gas chromatography tests to detect levels of chemicals like Lindane some smaller levels were found in those used as a control and today, like D.D.T. Lindane is found in all mammals throughout the world. As Lindane is stored in body fat and not easily excreted it is almost certainly one of the causative agents along with other chemicals, drugs and radiation that is responsible for the increase in cancers since the last war,  This increase in the numbers of cancers has coincided with the increased use of the agents known to cause cancers. Additional information when lindane was banned in Israel the incidence of breast cancers decreased dramatically.

Although Michael Faraday went on to other work and made an apparent recovery from his Benzene and Lindane exposures Marie Curie was not so fortunate, she died of aplastic anaemia resulting from her exposure to the radium she was working with over the years. It is often said she died of leukaemia but this is not true, it is reported that her notebooks and papers are still dangerous because of radioactive contamination.

Following  Marie Curie's discoveries radium was used by the medical profession, with no evidence at all that it was effective or safe,  for just about every known ill there is from depression to constipation. It was hailed as a cure for every ill and it was not until the number of doctors falling victim to its effects were so numerous that they could not be overlooked was it admitted it was dangerous. Thousands of those treated died of aplastic anaemia and leukaemia and this disregard for the obvious with serious or fatal effects of medical treatments has repeated itself time and time again in the present century with millions killed and injured by the medical profession refusing to accept what their own research says about the dangers of some medical treatments. In additional information done on research in Germany it was found that x-rays used during breast cancer screening increased the risk of developing breast cancers 2 to 3 times in some age groups.

Whenever a new 'miracle' cure is promoted by the drug industry it is often promoted as not having the terrible side effects of the last miracle cure and it is not until the next miracle cure comes along that the side affects of today's treatment will be admitted. Current drug books used by the medical profession, like the BNF, do now warn of over prescribing, being sure that a drug is needed at all, and the necessity of reporting all side effects including conditions like cancer which can manifest years later.  As the reporting of drug side-effects is voluntary and not compulsory very few are reported at all. A 1996 issue of the Pharmaceutical Journal carried a report that only 6.3% of adverse drug reactions are reported! and this would not include long term effects.

A fatal case of Aplastic anaemia (Case no. 18) came to our notice in a pre-school aged infant boy through another case connected with the timber treatment in houses. This case was different as it appeared that a number of people were affected adversely in a fairly small area of a northern industrial town. It was not possible for us to investigate the case properly but it is included as we found several such areas with numbers affected in one location. It was not possible to establish a definite causative agent in this area but one possible cause was that the area was adjacent to the site of an old armament factory, the chemicals used for explosives being documented to cause aplastic anaemia, and we have medical papers showing this. Whatever the cause, several, including a doctor, had tried to investigate but had their attempts stopped, in one incident a plan of the area showing the location of victims with pins mysteriously disappeared from a local hospital with those interested unable to obtain any explanation. Anonymous threats to families affected were reported to us and a few other incidents made it clear that someone knew something about the causes of illnesses in the area.

This case is not unlike the one in the United States at Love Canal where houses were built on an old toxic waste site following which a number of residents, mostly children, suffered conditions like leukaemia etc. After some years it was finally admitted that toxic chemicals, including Lindane, were responsible for the illnesses and the area was evacuated. With the particular area above it seems unlikely that anyone is ever going to admit the area is, or was contaminated.

Another case of aplastic anaemia (Case  no.19) came to our notice when friends and relatives spoke to us about the victim, a young man with aplastic anaemia. He was a nuclear worker and would not speak to anyone about his condition. The nuclear industry in the United Kingdom now has a no faults compensation scheme to cover such cases and it is possible that in this case the victim had accepted compensation and signed to say he would not discuss his condition with anyone.

A case of Agranulocytosis (Case no.20) came to our attention, the first where the condition was not part of Aplastic anaemia. The victim, a young man, had died and we spoke to his brother who informed us that the victim had worked with Benzene related chemicals at a local chemical works. We also spoke to a friend of the victim who had worked at the same works and he explained that there was no real protection for the workers so they had devised their own safety system. If they developed what they called "the shakes, sweats or bright coloured urine" they got out of the job quickly before they developed more serious or fatal effects of the chemicals. Whilst this is one way of some self protection it is likely that once symptoms had been noticed there would already be a higher than normal risk of developing cancers etc. in the longer term.

A workman we employed reported to us a case of Thrombocytopenia (Case no. 21) in his youngest daughter. The child, under school age when she developed the problem, was at first diagnosed as a case of child abuse due to the extensive bruising because of her lack of platelets. On correct diagnosis which apparently took about two weeks the child was given platelet transfusions over a period of several months.

Investigations showed that the house had been treated with timber preservatives in the months before the child became ill with some early symptoms noticed by the parents before diagnosis, suggesting that the chemicals were responsible. We could find exposure to no other causative agent, drugs etc. during the year or so before diagnosis and the reason the other children were not affected was probably because they were older and larger and less susceptible and were also at school or out of the house much of the time in the months following treatment of the timbers. The little girl also had diminished white cells with risk of infections and was in isolation for a few weeks.

One thing that transpired from the illness of the child was similar to an experience of ours, when the family tried to obtain private extra medical insurance the insurance company would not entertain insuring the child who had the thrombocytopenia. Our experience is that Edward has been unable to obtain any life insurance since his aplastic anaemia, this shows that insurance actuaries are fully aware of the long term effects of blood dyscrasias.  In Edward's case the hepatitis C also seems to be considered in the same light as far as risk goes with health insurance.

Contact with the Pesticide Group of Sufferers (PEGS) an organisation started by Mrs Enfys Chapman, family and friends after her exposure to Organophosphorous insecticides brought us into contact with a few more victims of aplastic anaemia and other disorders following exposure to toxic chemicals, several of the aplastic victims had been exposed to Lindane. None of these cases differed much from ones we had already investigated, one who was not so seriously affected we suggested gas chromatography tests to establish proof of cause and effect after exposure to Lindane. This proved to be, once again, above normal levels of the chemical. All the cases connected with PEGS, and we still have contact with some, confirmed what we had already investigated on causes of the conditions, one recent case of Megeloblastic anaemia followed exposure to Lindane and some other chemicals. Some who were not too seriously affected we were able to help recover by giving them the information they needed.

Investigations into the Organophosphorous compounds, which are used in drugs, nerve war chemicals and insecticides showed that there are also known documented causes of paralysing illness with damage to motor neurones and described as delayed neuropathy. Around this time also we looked at Parkinson's disease which is well documented to be caused by prescribed drugs, and herbicides, the Phenothiazine tranquillisers (also used as herbicides!) probably being the most common cause.

The cases described in this section are by no means all those we investigated but they give a good overall picture of what we found when interviewing other sufferers without repeating the same thing many times over. Several cases where compensation was paid after we suppied victims or relatives with information and data are not included.  Recent media coverage has shown our investigations into the effects of the Organophosphorous chemicals is correct with many farmers becoming paralysed after using the chemicals as insecticides for sheep dipping. Some of those we spoke to had been paid out-of-court compensation, including Mrs Enfys Chapman herself after being accidentally exposed by crop spraying. Also the troops in the gulf War, exposed to the same chemicals show many of the symptoms documented to be caused by the Organophosphorous chemicals. The paralysing conditions caused by these drugs, chemicals and insecticides (as well as nerve war weapons) with damage to motor neurons is once again the main reason for the cover up, as the drug & chemical industry; politicians and the medical profession do not want to admit that these are responsible for many of today's common paralysing conditions. It is quite probable that the troops in the Gulf War were used as 'human Guinea pigs' as there is a long history of governments using troops in medical and military experiments. With those in the Gulf war it is possible that medications have combined with the effects of the chemicals and depleted uranium in shells to complicate the symptoms.

PREVENTION AND TREATMENT - CONCLUSIONS,

Much has already been said on causes in the previous sections, and from discussions with victims we found the only sure way for effective prevention is avoidance of causative agents through more public awareness. This is not always easy or obvious, for example in Edward's case the sellers and his employers said herbicides he used at work were "safe enough to eat off a spoon, as safe as table salt". On investigation later it turned out that these chemicals were on official poison registers and some could not be bought by the general public. There have been laws passed now making it illegal to make false claims of safety of toxic chemicals, herbicides etc. Although Edward’s employers supplied a list of chemical he worked with to the hospital it was admitted the list was not complete as some chemicals the labels had “fallen off the drums so the chemicals had been destroyed” They also said there had been “no cover-up”  !!

Looking at the numbers of the population affected in total it is difficult to get at any accurate official figures. A few years ago it was admitted that the official figures for the number of cases of leukaemia in the United Kingdom were 60% less than the actual numbers so this shows to what degree official figures can be inaccurate. With the blood dyscrasias being the same causes as leukaemia and other cancers it is difficult, as no tests are normally done, to know just how many who develop leukaemia and other cancers first have some degree of bone marrow and immune system damage which goes undetected. The tests done by Piscatto in 1967 to monitor the effects on over 6,000 of his patients showed an alarming one third having some degree of bone marrow damage with just the one drug Phenothiazine.

It is probable that just about everyone in western countries since World War Two has taken one or more of the hundreds of drugs known to cause bone marrow depression and therefore genetic damage and will have some pre-disposition to leukaemia and other cancers. With the massive increase in the prescribing of drugs, use of chemicals and exposure to the general population to non natural occurring radiation since World War Two it is hardly surprising that as many as one third of the populations of some western nations like the United Kingdom can expect to develop cancer at sometime. Geneticists may point to this or that gene being defective in predisposal but this is not, in most cases, a naturally occurring effect but is genetic damage caused by the known causative agents of the blood dyscrasias.

The genetic and cancer causing effects of toxic chemicals can be seen clearly in large groups of people who are exposed to causative agents like the American troops exposed to the herbicides 2,4-D (which Edward was also exposed to at work) and 2,4,5-T ( Agent Orange ) both with their dioxin content. Following exposure to 100,000 troops the wives of those who had babies after their husband's exposure gave birth to 3,000 spina bifida babies. The troops themselves have been paid out millions $ for cancers, neuropathies and other conditions caused by the herbicides.

The gas chromatography tests done on those exposed to toxic chemicals, combined with other laboratory tests, shows deficiency of enzymes and knock on effects on minerals and vitamins, being exactly the same as those documented with the atomic bomb victims. Vitamin C deficiency is apparent in many victims regardless of which type of exposure. The other deficiencies vary to some degree but some deficiency is common in all cases. With this information Edward took replacement minerals and vitamins until his blood counts had reached non life threatening levels. Some of the minerals and vitamins, e.g. B vitamins, are dangerous if taken in too large doses and have been known to cause serious illness, so unless laboratory tests have been performed showing the exact deficiency levels we do not recommend taking supplementary vitamins and minerals, vitamin C being the exception. Vitamin C, if taken at recommended doses can be a good detoxifier and also strengthens blood vessels (capillaries can be much weakened when suffering from many blood disorders causing leakage into tissues and bruising), however this can take a long time to complete; Edward's platelet level is still not back to normal even after over 10 years. Additional information Edward’s platelets returned very slowly to lower “normal” levels after 18 years.

Without doubt from our investigations a sizeable proportion of those affected by conditions like chronic fatigue are due to exposure to drugs, chemicals and radiation with its effects on the immune system, tryptophan, serotonin, and vitamin B3. Fatigue is just one of many symptoms documented to be caused by the same causative agents of blood dyscrasias and we found many who suffered these symptoms before a more serious condition developed, and in many less exposed, who did not develop a blood disorder.

Some years ago some medical experts and textbooks (e.g. Bowman and Rand's Pharmacology) suggested it would not be long before we knew all the causes of cancer, That time has now arrived, most cancers do now have known causes and the majority could be prevented. As to be expected, and as it was with the tobacco industry for many years, those selling or whose livelihood depends on the drugs, chemicals and radiation which cause blood dyscrasias, leukaemia and other cancers will deny the effects to maximise profits for as long as possible. One excuse we hear often is that there is no alternative to this or that product but there always is a safer alternative or the product is not essential. A typical example of this cover-up of causes is the very dangerous practice of solvent abuse..  The medical profession, governments, teachers etc. all know full well that this is far more damaging than smoking and yet children are not warned of this known danger. The normal answer Edward got from police, the medical profession teachers etc. was that if children developed leukaemia from solvent abuse after being told not to it was their own fault. even though this effect was not explained to them.  It is amazing that those who say this are often sympathetic to smokers developing lung cancer. Those in the painting and decorating profession prove that there is a danger to inhaling petroleum fumes from their paints with a twenty per cent above the normal rate of cancers, particularly lung cancer, in that profession.

In a modern world it is impossible to avoid all the known causative agents of blood dyscrasias, leukaemia and cancer but, with a little care it is possible to avoid the worst effects of the most dangerous ones, most if not all causative agents have safer, if not as profitable alternatives. For those already affected and suffering a blood disorder or having suffered in the past it has been shown how important it is to try to avoid further exposures to which you may be hypersensitised. It has been shown that medical support is by no means always good or even appropriate, for example, Edward lost count of the number of times he stopped drug infusions because the drip was put up with only air in the tube, which is not always apparent if the drug is not coloured, each of these occurrences could have been fatal. Infections, which are often fatal in those immunocompromised are as often as not contracted whilst in hospital so victims and relatives need to be vigilant in demanding care from medical personnel. Drugs should be taken with great care by those with blood dyscrasias, so many drugs can cause these conditions that it is impossible to list them all but those like painkillers and tranquillisers are mostly not essential so should be avoided. Antibiotics are also to be avoided if possible so great care should be taken to avoid infections, with scrupulous attention to cleanliness using a gentle antibacterial soap (Cidal is a good one). For constant pain, for example for those who have developed a blood disorder due to an arthritic drug a TENS machine should be demanded from the doctor as this is completely safe and has been shown to reduce much pain in most patients. All drugs should be treated with utmost care and a check made in a drug book like the BNF for side effects or if there is a safer alternative.

It is unlikely that ionising radiation will be a problem or if so, one that can be avoided except in the case of X-rays which should be avoided in large numbers if possible. With toxic chemicals to be avoided for both prevention and for those affected the most dangerous ones and most commonly in use are the benzene related ones. Absorption can be through skin contact, inhalation or ingestion, ingestion being the most direct and dangerous route, hence the effects of small amounts of benzene in prescribed drugs which are documented to cause the blood dyscrasias The chemicals to be avoided include paints, varnishes, solvent, solvent adhesives,(NB children can become addicted to solvent abuse through the use of correcting fluid), pesticides and herbicides, dry cleaning, petrol and household cleaning products containing Phenol (derived from benzene).

The pathways that cause the blood disorders and cancers from exposure to benzene is though bioactivation in the liver to phenol, the major matabolite which is highly toxic to and destroys the bone marrow. That this causes genomic changes is well known but not yet fully understood. The halogens Chlorine, Fluorine and Bromine should be avoided if possible, the effects of which in tap water can increase the effects of other chemicals, radiation and drugs. Arsenic, heavy meals like mercury and lead should also be avoided. Remember the letter we have from MAFF that  "All pesticides are a danger to both human health and the environment" and that these pesticides can be in foods.

There is little doubt that to line the pockets of a few, millions have been ill or killed by exposure to drugs, chemicals and radiation so to a degree we need to return to the point before the massive increase in the use of these products and take responsibility and control of our own health whilst using doctors as advisors but to watch them like a hawk when they reach for their prescription pad without any examination or investigation of an illness.

An old French proverb says that "Most men die of their medicines and not their illnesses".

First written in 1996. Updated in April, 2005

REFERENCE SOURCES

Bowman and Rand - Textbook on Pharmacology

American journal of Pathology - 1949 Atomic Bomb Victims

Michael Freemantle - Chemistry in Action

Professor G.C.de Gruchy - Drug Induced Blood Disorders

Hansard - Questions and Answers to Parliament 11th January, 1989

Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food - Letter 17th January, 1989

Mosby's Medical and Nursing Dictionary.(Fourth Edition 1994)

British National Formulary (BNF) by B.M.A. and Royal Pharm. Soc. of Great Britain.

Harrisons - Principals of Internal Medicine

Assoc. of British Pharmaceutical Ind. (ABPI) (By drug industry on effects of drugs).

Gaddum's Pharmacology. (8th Ed. Oxford Medical Publications)

Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry 6th Oct.1951 - Toxic Effect of Technical Benzene Haxachloride (J.A.M.A. Vol.147 No.6)

Revue des Progress Therapeutics No.1 1938

British Journal of Haematology No.76 - (Bone Marrow Transplantation in Aplastic Anaemia                       1990P401-405.E.R.Komenski,J.M.Hows,J.M.Goldman,J.R.Batchelor.Dept. of Immunology       and Haematology, Hammersmith Hospital,U.K.)

C.N.Lewis, L.E.Putman, F.D.Hendricks, I.Kerlan, & H.Welch - Chloramphenicol in Relation          to Blood Dyscrasias ('Antibiotics & Chemotherapy Vol. 11 & 12' December 1952,    Food and Drug Administration, Washington).

Prof. Dr. Paul Ehrlich - About a Case of Anaemia with Observations on Regenerative        Changes in the Bone Marrow (first paper written on the subject 1888).

L. Sanchez-Medal MD, J.P.Castanedo MD and F.Garcia-Rojas MD - Insecticides and       Aplastic Anaemia (Mexico, Medical Intelligence Vol. 269 No. 25 19th December             1963)

The Lancet - Idiopathic Aplastic Anaemia.(14th January 1961)

James L.Scott, George E.Cartwright and Maxwell M. Wintrobe - Acquired Aplastic Anaemia;         An Analysis of 39 cases and Review of the Pertinent Literature (Department of           Internal Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1957)

J.Phillip Loge MD - Aplastic Anaemia Following Exposure to Benzene Hexachloride           (Lindane) (J.A.M.A. Vol.193 No.2, 12thJuly 1965)

The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol. 251 (2nd October 1993)

The Martindale Extra Pharmacopoea (39th Edition)

Haematology Digest - 43:98  101.1990 Aplastic Anaemia associated with Organochlorine             Pesticide (Lindane[ 3 cases discussed at Royal Liverpool Hospital]).

E.C.Gordon-Smith - Aplastic Anaemia and Other causes of Bone Marrow Failure (Oxford             Textbook of Medicine)

Patrick Kinnersley - The Hazards of Work (Pluto Press. P153/4. Benzene causing aplastic          anaemia and leukaemia)

Dr. Joe Collier (Lecturer in Pharmacology) - The Health Conspiracy. How Doctors, The                            Drug Industry and the Government Undermine Our Health.        

F.M.Corrigan, S.MacDonald, A.Brown, K.Armstrong & E.M.Armstrong - Neurasthenic        Fatigue Chemical Sensitivity and GABAa Receptor Toxins (Bute Hospital         Lockgllphead, Argyll)      

Catherine Caufield - Multiple Exposures (Chronicles of the Radiation Age)

The Guardian - No-fault Compensation to Nuclear Workers.& Cancer in Painters (10th July          1992)

The Guardian - Leukaemia Statistics in U.K. (10th May 1990)

E.M.Davies - Textbook on Adverse Drug Reactions (Oxford University Press)

(The above are just some of the more important source references)

Send mail to webmaster with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2005 Medicines and Illness