I see something else at work – Naessens called them Somatids; Béchamp called them microzymes, Bradford called them Borrelia Burgdorferi, I called them Rickettsias.  It really doesn’t matter what they are called, whatever they are – these tiny elements, some less than an angstrom in diameter – they are few in the blood of relatively healthy individuals, animals, plants. When sickness encroaches and the person, animal or plant falls ill, their numbers rise till they all but fill the blood, body fluids or saps of plants and near death they are at their most numerous.

Poisons seem to curtail their numbers, antibiotics certainly keep them at bay, but as soon as a chemical scourge passes, their numbers rise to levels higher than prior to the taking of antibiotics.  They “feed” like bacteria and viruses do and sugars (essential or otherwise) boost their numbers.  Foods that break down to carbohydrates are their staple.  Where protein and fats are consumed, their numbers are low (i.e. person, animal or plant is healthy?). Where the main dietary indulgence is carbohydrates, fruits and sugars, their numbers quickly increase and eventually spin out of control and cellular degeneration seems to accompany their increase in body fluids, tissues and saps.

The Word says:  Life is in the blood – if both the keys to life and death are in God’s hands and He created us in His Image; if all of Creation groans for the revelation of the Son of God to return in all his Glory, as it does,  then these life-forms in us, described by Chistopher Bird in his book about the persecution of the scientist and inventor, Gaston Naessens as indestructible even when exposed to temperatures of above 200˚ Celsius or nuclear radiation levels of 50,000 rems (“more than enough to kill any  living thing” Bird, 1991:5) and eternal, must be the very seeds of life which the Lord placed in each one of us, when he took dust and forged man’s frail flesh from it.

Bird, (1991:5) writes: “The eerie implication is that the new miniscule life forms revealed by Naessens’s microscope are imperishable.  At the death of their hosts, such as ourselves, they return to the earth, where they lie for thousands or millions, perhaps billions of years!”

As I’ve told you, I’ve seen these mini life-forms, far too small for regular microscopes to see on my Bradford High Resolution, variable projection microscope.  Several others have seen and described them – all of whom have either lost their lives, or been incarcerated or persecuted.  The last in a long line of microscope builders, microscopists and scientists has been Dr. Robert Bradford, cancer researcher in the USA, who was charged with 25 federal indictments in 2005 together with Brigitte Byrd and John Tothe.  The latter is serving a prison sentence for supposedly killing someone with Bismacine /Chromacine in his attempt to rid the person of chronic Lymes disease.

If we call them divine seeds, they may be the elements which bring to and sustain life or condemn us to (degrees of) physical death (The Bible, Leviticus 26 & 27).  Where everything is healthy and whole and vibrant, these life-forms applaud and conspire for good, fully under orchestration of the Maker. But where man’s mischief is unleashed, through his meddling in areas not sanctified for human revelation, like nuclear or scalar energy; like exquisite poisons and toxins with names too difficult for ordinary men to even pronounce, or where man plays god and tries to unleash biological warfare weapons so stealthily and so destructively, that it will take generations for the wisest among us to find out what went wrong in mankind to foster as sick a society as we have become and are progressively becoming, these life-forms are both then judges and executioners in the same human body they were meant to grow and energise – rising up as minute warriors of the Almighty, mirroring His the wrath of His image into every single cell of our beings!

I need to reiterate: These somatids (Naessens) or Rickettsial forms (Smit) are few in number where life is in good order. They are seemingly absent or well integrated into our bodies where life thrives, as if they are just there going about their business in a totally unobtrusive, chaperoning, energizing, enzymatically connective and catalytically restorative manner – like a host of molecular-sized angels overseeing the smooth running of our great body chemistry.  At this point they even seem to be aid-givers and healers of life, as some authors explain (Béchamp, 1800’s) ”…Béchamp went on to study microzymas (emphasis mine) located in the bodies of animals and came to the startling conclusion that the tiny forms were far more basic to life than cells, long considered to be the basic building blocks of all living matter.  Béchamp thought them to be fundamental elements responsible for the activity of cells, tissues, organs, and indeed whole living organisms, from bacteria to whales, and larks to human beings…” (Christopher Bird, The Persecution and Trial of Gaston Naessens, 1991, H.J. Kramer Inc, Tiburon, California: p. 7).

However, where sin, stress, perversion and man-made interference is present/prevails (not necessarily on a personal level, but communally or environmentally, contaminating the individual), these tiny life-forms appear to immediately manifest in numbers overwhelmingly plentiful and rise up like menacing cellular tsunamis, over-running cells, and dragging a net of utter destruction like a fast-flowing river, from which it is impossible to escape, over every living cell in our bodies and cells literally die in their millions.

Where the divine is interrupted, disrupted and obstructed, there the life-forms “surface” from the inner-spaces of cells, tissues and bone, leaving their constructive presence there in their trillions and powerfully fill the spaces between spaces, the scalar points of resonance of our being, multiplying and destroying tissues at a rate so fast and frightening that even our strongest cures often can’t arrest the dis-ease in our cells – almost as if on a divine mission to return dust to dust and heralding that time has run out….

Once the body is laid in the dust, they reduce us to nothing in relatively short periods of time and then proceed to re-populate and re-build the soil with wonderful life-giving qualities (Martin J Walker, “Lőic Le Ribault – Resistance – the creation of a treatment for arthritis and the persecution of its author – France’s foremost forensic scientist”, 1998, ISBN 0 9519646 1 5, Slingshot Publications, London), such as what Le Ribault has found with the compound, G5 that he’s manufacturing from soil. G5, as he has called it, is a curative organic silica.  He saw these elements on the surface of soil, producing an organic residue, as these elemental forms that take what was dead and makes bring forth life again though carbon-linking.  The theories and research of prof. Norbet Duffaut coalesced with that of Le Ribault (Walker, 1998) and they understood that these life forms were preserving energy in soil from which animal and plant species could benefit. Their research led them to understand that by these life forms forging energy through the organic silica (burning carbon yields the highest fuel for animal existence – such as when one is burning EFA’s in mitochondria that yield ATP) – they potentiate the cycle of life all over again.  This is so obviously contrary to what the Big Bang Theorists proclaim and those who hold that there is no Intelligent Designer and Creator, as this closure of the circles of life, is no doubt all by exquisite design, not just on the macro-level sustaining health and life, but on the most critical, and infinitesimal/microscopic level too, sustaining enzymatic processes, detoxification, rejuvenation….  The path that soil takes through these organisms,  makes the soil alive again with promise. It forges healing via organic silica and from the earth, as of old,  God fashions newness of life.  Nothing is wasteful, nothing is lost – what a mighty God we serve!

That’s my small take on the somatids, dear Brother.

There is something else I see: AIDS, the Black or Bubonic Plague or any other destructive (auto-immune) dis-ease, in this context, appears to merely be the judgement of the Almighty on the corrupt practices of men generically.  And though this judgement can be visited upon the individual for personal apostasy and sin, the judgement can also be generic as a type of “finger of God” writing into the cells of created beings his judgement for the greater apostasy which has cloaked this planet, due to avarice, moral collapse and rebellion.  Thus, visiting them internally, the somatids are sent to reduce them to dust for breaking His cosmic and moral laws as well as laws of physics, meddling in the meta-physical as they swan in as lords of the “other” world, spinning lies, then living them, corrupting the planet and resultantly their own flesh, heamorrhaging life from every orifice of their material-hungry beings, till all they are becomes dust again.  This is when He starts all over again, like the Eternal Potter he is, and crafts new vessels from the dust, which He energizes.  Sometimes He heals in small measure, almost like a vignette of His true self, a part here, a part there – never meaning to fully restore, as the order of things has shifted – eternally shifted and time will soon be consumed.  Everything will be consumed as soon as it has served its Divine purpose.

The facts are that when we mess with the natural order, the natural order, as decreed by God, messes with us – badly.

This World’s Order, eternally pitted against the Almighty since the Fall, has decided that it will take its greatest flaw, its most ignominious defeat and commercialize it at all cost.

Someone somewhere must have realised or understood this secret and the giant monolith started to stir through the inventions of clever men.  The captains of industry pounced on these findings, rubbing their hands together in such avarice and glee foreseeing that whilst they could, they would rake in trillions as they capitalize on the fear of a fast-dying race.

They must also have known that the same God who creates, destroys, who builds, breaks, and who heals, blights, where-ever He is not honoured and upheld – this has been the Ancient Law as written in His Book – and if it wasn’t written on Tablets of Stone and given to man, it was written in the laws of nature for man to plainly see.

Against this they would have no redress.  They can’t alter the Eternal Order of things. So, typically, mercenary in their vision, those who drive this World’s Order decided to exploit the baseness of man, the final frontier just before man is no more and at this uttermost frontier, it stacked up lies so thick and so fast, so deep and so fantastic,  that a condemned race, weak, stricken and ill, reeling under God’s judgement, could do nothing else but be duped to believe that out of the New Age of world Capitalism and Technological Advancement will be born the antidote for their physical and emotional suffering, helping them to escape eternal damnation and death.  Here at the final touch-down was born a whole swarm of new saviours – the gods of technology, the gods of medicine and the gods of pharmacology and woe be to the man (or woman) who dared to challenge these “nouveau dieux”.  Those who did are mostly dead – first dragged before courts, persecuted and dismissed as lunatics, stripped of all and then killed, or left to flee their home countries and be restless vagabonds in strange places, personas non grata, with no citizenship, no legal status and no homes.

Here at this frontier trading is brisk, man lives in hope, but cruelly dies in despair.  Here he empties his pockets to the gods of medicine, pharmacology and technology, breathing his last breath in the hope that he would grasp life, yet he clutches death! Hope here is as elusive as the Somatids themselves.   Groping for answers here, he finds that there are only illusions, phantoms shrouded with possibility, smokescreens that belie the very spectres they represent…. here the world system does its damndest to convince man that he has another chance to live – but God said it is finished! This World’s Order has taken the Cosmic Conundrum called Death and redefined it through intricate scientific systems to mean Life – a trade-off: and a new race is born here – the living-dead….

Arrogantly, proudly, insidiously, persistently, these spin doctors weave the shroud that would cover the hosts of living-dead – as if they own the keys of Life and Death.  With this arrogance they continue to daily forge their pots of gold as souls die and grope in vain.

And as sinister now as the end-stage Somatids that are charged to dismantle life, these captains of industry menacingly construct their New-Age propaganda:

• “They must never know it was we who unleashed the Somatids in their cells;
• that it is our strong medicine, which destroys their life force and allows the Somatids to introduce the Grim Reaper.
• Let’s call life death and death life – call somatids “pathogens” – breeding fear in people and terror;
• let’s rather link them to destruction, plague and death, so that they’ll never guess that Somatids are actually harbingers of life, strictly charged with God’s laws of life.
• Let’s allow the lie to live – that by “medicating” them, we promise that through our ever growing pharmacopeia, we suspend disease.
• Let’s create the illusion that by naming, cataloguing and describing a plethora of “dis-eases” we have uncovered the causative agents of these “dis-eases”;
• let’s write about them, create scientific tomes about them, fill digests with “facts” about them,
• let’s legislate in our courts about them,
• let’s vaccinate against them,
• let’s prepare trillions of doses of “medication” to recover from them and finally,
• let our enactments condemn and destroy all who don’t uphold what we say about them – who don’t bow before our god of mammon and atheism.
• Let’s spread our gospel that by means of our strong medicines, strongly invasive techniques, called “operations” we can destroy/excise these “dis-eases”….!
• Let’s play god for a moment longer and divert their attention away from the real issues –
  • the destruction of the planet that summons the Somatids,
  • the groaning of creation,
  • the yearning of man to be free of this body of death and be reunited with his Maker,
  • the systematic poisoning of all air, water, soil, fauna, flora and the souls of men across the wide expanse of this groaning planet;
• let’s make them forget by numbing them,
• by drugging them,
• by intoxicating them and so
• turn their attention away from Him who is, Who was and Who is to come!”

They grow bolder every day and their battle cry is now louder than ever: “Let’s kill God! How? By killing the truth about the Somatids and the proponents of the theories of disease-reduction and healing that might lead them to the Light. Let’s just wage war on everyone who harbours these precious elements of eternity in their beings – feed them sugar, load them with carbohydrates, poison the air they breathe and the water they drink, fill their food with junk additives and build our medical cathedrals, leading them to believe that here true worship brings life…. all in the name of the nouveau diex – Technology, Medicine and Pharmacopeia!”   And for this they charge the earth – read: “burden the planet” into my words!

This is what I see in the persecution of the lives and work of Rife, Naessens, Le Ribault and Bradford, to name just a few of the many who have dared to raise dissent and consequently suffered great loss – how able we are to articulate this better than they were, I can’t say, but someone has to keep saying it so that some might believe, dear brother in Christ.

The latter, however, depends on the unction of the Father and on the amount of time we have left before they come for us too who aren’t afraid to tell or the time when He finally restores all things to Himself….

But, that there is a life, within our bodies, multiple miniscule life-forces imaging Him within every cell and that they have both the capability towards good and evil, life or death in every most minute particle that resides in man in a transitory fashion, is a fact – I’ve had the privilege of seeing them with my own eyes through the lenses of my own Bradford high resolution microscope.  How these life-forms are born, grow, transform, multiply, reduce and recycle is another story, much too complicated for my weary and finite mind….and the mystery is only beginning to unfold!

Good night and sleep tight!

Carin

Probably the main roadblock to widespread examination and utilization of this all-too-simple technology is the equally widespread belief that there must be unknown dangers to tens of thousands of milligrams of ascorbic acid. Yet, since the time megascorbate therapy was introduced in the late 1940’s by Fred R. Klenner, M.D. (2), there has been an especially safe, and extremely effective track record to follow.

Still, for some, questions remain. Here is a sample of what readers have asked OMNS about vitamin C:

Is 2,000 mg/day of vitamin C a megadose?
No. Decades ago, Linus Pauling and Irwin Stone showed that most animals make at least that much (or more) per human body weight per day. (3,4)

Then why has the government set the “Safe Upper Limit for vitamin C at 2,000 mg/day?
Perhaps the reason is ignorance. According to nationwide data compiled by the American Association of Poison Control Centers, vitamin C (and the use of any other dietary supplement) does not kill anyone. (5)

Does vitamin C damage DNA?
No. If vitamin C harmed DNA, why do most animals make (not eat, but make) between 2,000 and 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C per human equivalent body weight per day? Evolution would never so favor anything that harms vitalgenetic material. White blood cells and male reproductive fluids contain unusually high quantities of ascorbate. Living, reproducing systems love vitamin C.

Does vitamin C cause low blood sugar, B-12 deficiency, birth defects, or infertility?
Vitamin C does not cause birth defects, nor infertility, nor miscarriage. “Harmful effects have been mistakenly attributed to vitamin C, including hypoglycemia, rebound scurvy, infertility, mutagenesis, and destruction of vitamin B-12. Health professionals should recognize that vitamin C does not produce these effects.” (6)

Does vitamin C . . .
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 14 day trial of 3,000 mg per day of vitamin C reported greater frequency of sexual intercourse. The vitamin C group (but not the placebo group) also experienced a quantifiable decrease indepression. This is probably due to the fact that vitamin C “modulates catecholaminergic activity, decreases stress reactivity, approach anxiety and prolactin release, improves vascular function, and increases oxytocin release. These processes are relevant to sexual behavior and mood.” (7)

Does vitamin C cause kidney stones?
No. The myth of the vitamin C-caused kidney stone is rivaled in popularity only by the Loch Ness Monster. A factoid-crazy medical media often overlooks the fact that William J. McCormick, M.D., demonstrated that vitamin C actuallyprevents the formation of kidney stones. He did so in 1946, when he published a paper on the subject. (8) His work was confirmed by University of Alabama professor of medicine Emanuel Cheraskin, M.D.. Dr. Cheraskin showed thatvitamin C inhibits the formation of oxalate stones. (9)

Other research reports that: “Even though a certain part of oxalate in the urine derives from metabolized ascorbic acid, the intake of high doses of vitamin C does not increase the risk of calcium oxalate kidney stones. . . (I)n the large- scaleHarvard Prospective Health Professional Follow-Up Study, those groups in the highest quintile of vitamin C intake (greater than 1,500 mg/day) had a lower risk of kidney stones than the groups in the lowest quintiles.” (10)

Dr. Robert F. Cathcart said, “I started using vitamin C in massive doses in patients in 1969. By the time I read that ascorbate should cause kidney stones, I had clinical evidence that it did not cause kidney stones, so I continued prescribing massive doses to patients. Up to 2006, I estimate that I have put 25,000 patients on massive doses of vitamin C and none have developed kidney stones. Two patients who had dropped their doses to 500 mg a day developed calcium oxalate kidney stones. I raised their doses back up to the more massive doses and added magnesium and B-6 to their program and no more kidney stones. I think they developed the kidney stones because they were not taking enough vitamin C.”

Why did Linus Pauling die from cancer if he took all that vitamin C?
Linus Pauling, PhD, megadose vitamin C advocate, died in 1994 from prostate cancer. Mayo Clinic cancer researcher Charles G. Moertel, M.D., critic of Pauling and vitamin C, also died in 1994, and also from cancer (lymphoma). Dr. Moertel was 66 years old. Dr. Pauling was 93 years old. One needs to make up ones own mind as to whether this does or does not indicate benefit from vitamin C.

A review of the subject indicates that “Vitamin C deficiency is common in patients with advanced cancer . . . Patients with low plasma concentrations of vitamin C have a shorter survival.” (11)

Does vitamin C narrow arteries or cause atherosclerosis?
Abram Hoffer, M.D., has said: “I have used vitamin C in megadoses with my patients since 1952 and have not seen any cases of heart disease develop even after decades of use. Dr. Robert Cathcart with experience on over 25,000 patients since 1969 has seen no cases of heart disease developing in patients who did not have any when first seen. He added that the thickening of the vessel walls, if true, indicates that the thinning that occurs with age is reversed. . . The fact is that vitamin C decreases plaque formation according to many clinical studies. Some critics ignore the knowledge that thickened arterial walls in the absence of plaque formation indicate that the walls are becoming stronger and therefore less apt to rupture. . . Gokce, Keaney, Frei et al gave patients supplemental vitamin C daily for thirty days and measured blood flow through the arteries. Blood flow increased nearly fifty percent after the single dose an d this was sustained after the monthly treatment. (12).”

What about blood pressure?
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study showed that hypertensive patients taking supplemental vitamin C had lower blood pressure. (13)

So why the flurry of anti-vitamin-C reporting in the mass media? Negative news gets attention. Negative news sells newspapers, and magazines, and pulls in lots of television viewers. Positive drug studies do get headlines, of course.Positive vitamin studies do not. Is this a conspiracy? You mean with unscrupulous people all sitting around a shaded table in a darkened back room? Of course not. It is nevertheless an enormous public health problem with enormous consequences.

150 million Americans take supplemental vitamin C every day. This is as much a political issue as a scientific issue. What would happen if everybody took vitamins? Perhaps doctors, hospital administrators and pharmaceutical salespeople would all be lining up for their unemployment checks.

A skeptic might conclude that there is at least some evidence that the politicians are on the wrong side of this. After all, the US RDA for vitamin C for humans is only 10% of the government’s USDA vitamin C standards for Guinea pigs. (14) But conspiracy against nutritional medicine? Certainly not. Couldn’t be.

References and Additional Reading:

(1) Cathcart RF. Vitamin C, titration to bowel tolerance, anascorbemia, and acute induced scurvy.” Medical Hypothesis 7:1359-1376, 1981. http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html

See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n09.shtml and http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n11.shtml

(2) Saul AW. Hidden in plain sight: the pioneering work of Frederick Robert Klenner, M.D. J Orthomolecular Med, 2007. Vol 22, No 1, p 31-38. http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerbio.html andhttp://orthomolecular.org/hof/2005/fklenner.html

Dr. F.R. Klenner’s Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C is posted in its entirety at http://www.seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/198x/smith-lh-clinical_guide_1988.htm

(3) Pauling L. How to Live Longer and Feel Better. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2006. Reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/livelonger.html . Linus Pauling’s complete vitamin and nutrition bibliography is posted athttp://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_pauling_ortho.html

(4) The complete text of Irwin Stone’s book The Healing Factor is posted for free reading at http://vitamincfoundation.org/stone/

(5) http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n04.shtml

(6) Levine M et al. JAMA, April 21, 1999. Vol 281, No 15, p 1419.

(7) High-dose ascorbic acid increases intercourse frequency and improves mood: a randomized controlled clinical trial. Brody S. Biol Psychiatry 2002 Aug 15; 52(4):371-4.

(8) McCormick WJ. Lithogenesis and hypovitaminosis. Medical Record, 1946. 159:7, July, p 410-413.

(9) Cheraskin E, Ringsdorf, Jr. M and Sisley E. The Vitamin C Connection: Getting Well and Staying Well with Vitamin C. New York: Harper and Row, 1983. Also paperback, 1984: New York, Bantam Books. “Vitamin C in the urine tends to bind calcium and decrease its free form. This means less chance of calcium’s separating out as calcium oxalate (stones).” [page 213] See also: Ringsdorf WM Jr, Cheraskin E. Nutritional aspects of urolithiasis. South Med J. 1981 Jan;74(1):41-3, 46.

(10) Gerster H. No contribution of ascorbic acid to renal calcium oxalate stones. Ann Nutr Metab. 1997;41(5):269-82. See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n07.shtml

(11) Mayland CR, Bennett MI, Allan K. Vitamin C deficiency in cancer patients. Palliat Med. 2005 Jan;19(1):17-20. See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n09.shtml andhttp://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n19.shtml

(12) Free full text paper at http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/99/25/3234
See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n20.shtml and http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n02.shtml

(13) Duffy SJ, Gokce N, Holbrook M, Huang A, Frei B, Keaney JF Jr, Vita JA. Treatment of hypertension with ascorbic acid. Lancet. 1999 Dec 11;354(9195):2048-9.

(14) http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n08.shtml

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org ]]> http://carinsmit.co.za/blog/general/about-objections-to-vitamin-c-therapy/feed/ 0 http://carinsmit.co.za/blog/nutrition/nutrient-support-against-a-common-silent-threat/ http://carinsmit.co.za/blog/nutrition/nutrient-support-against-a-common-silent-threat/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:43:11 +0000 mafia http://carinsmit.co.za/?p=583 It could take the form of aching, stiff joints… or a nagging, sore back. It could also take the form of embarrassing gut trouble. That’s why any doctor will tell you that keeping the inflammatory process in balance is, perhaps, the most essential cornerstone of healthy aging.

Unfortunately, certain unavoidable factors—like stress, sleep loss or air pollution—may be sabotaging your best efforts at balancing your body’s normal inflammatory responses.^1-4 The truth is, you need all the help you can get in this ongoing fight. And luckily, research shows that just a few key botanicals can offer you just that—delivering multi-pronged support for a long, healthy and pain-free life.

For example, research shows that ginger acts against a wide range of pro-inflammatory cytokines—including IL-1beta, IL-2, IL-12, TNF-alpha and interferon (IFN)-gamma.⁵ The flavonoid luteolin delivers similar benefits, with animal studies showing that oral supplementation inhibits TNF-alpha production and reduces swelling—while preparations of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) have been linked to as much as a 99 percent reduction of several inflammatory cytokines, including IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha.^6-11

Holy basil leaf helps to suppress the production of the enzymes COX-2 and LOX-5—the latter is responsible for generating the leukotrienes linked to unhealthy cellular processes, as well as less than optimal lung, joint, skin and colon health. A special extract of bowellic acids (called 5-Loxin™) also is a powerful LOX-5 inhibitor.^12-14 Meanwhile, the natural compounds tetrandrine and fangchinoline (both found in Stephania tetrandra) have been shown to suppress the activity of IL-6—one of the main causes of elevated C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, in the blood—by up to 86 percent.¹⁵

The green tea polyphenol EGCG is also well known to support a healthy immune system, which is why this powerful antioxidant is included with all the botanicals mentioned above as part of VRP’s all-natural daily formula, Advanced Inflammation Control.¹⁶

The right nutrients can also offer critical support for joint comfort. The amino acid DL-phenylalanine, for example, promotes joint comfort by blocking the breakdown of enkephalins, your body’s natural pain reducers—in fact, studies reveal as much as a 75 percent positive response rate to D,L-phenylalanine among those supplementing with it.¹⁷ Turmeric extract containing 95% cucuminoids, on the other hand, has been shown to modulate COX, LOX and iNOS; providing balanced function of each of these enzymes, which is important when supporting the body’s normal inflammatory responses.^18-19

Clinical trials also show that Boswellia serrata supplementation delivers improvements in knee comfort, flexibility and walking distance—while the natural enzyme Nattokinase aids in breaking down fibrin deposits that can interfere with healthy circulation.^20-21 You’ll find all of these beneficial nutraceuticals combined in VRP’s daily formula Back in Action™.

Finally, enzymes like serrapeptase, papain, bromelain, amylase and lipase offer a comprehensive, natural way to support the body’s normal inflammatory mechanisms, and deliver improvements in a number of measures—including swelling, normal clotting processes, circulation plus increasing nutrient and oxygen supply—to promote rapid and greater comfort.²² As part of the comprehensive enzyme blend, called UniZyme™, VRP has combined all of these proteolytic enzymes with the botanicals amla and rutin—which help to enhance connective tissue repair and renewal.^23-26

References:

1. den Hartigh LJ, Lamé MW, Ham W, Kleeman MJ, Tablin F, Wilson DW. Endotoxin and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient fine particulate matter from Fresno, California initiate human monocyte inflammatory responses mediated by reactive oxygen species. Toxicol In Vitro. 2010 Aug 27. Published Online Ahead of Print.
2. Puustinen PJ, Koponen H, Kautiainen H, Mäntyselkä P, Vanhala M. Psychological distress and C-reactive protein: do health behaviours and pathophysiological factors modify the association? Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2010 Aug 14. Published Online Ahead of Print.
3. Drager LF, Lopes HF, Maki-Nunes C, Trombetta IC, Toschi-Dias E, Alves MJ, Fraga RF, Jun JC, Negrão CE, Krieger EM, Polotsky VY, Lorenzi-Filho G. The impact of obstructive sleep apnea on metabolic and inflammatory markers in consecutive patients with metabolic syndrome. PLoS One. 2010 Aug 11;5(8):e12065.
4. Irwin MR, Wang M, Ribeiro D, Cho HJ, Olmstead R, Breen EC, Martinez-Maza O, Cole S. Sleep loss activates cellular inflammatory signaling. Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Sep 15;64(6):538-40. Epub 2008 Jun 17.
5. Tripathi S, Bruch D, Kittur DS. Ginger extract inhibits LPS induced macrophage activation and function. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2008 Jan 3;8:1.
6. Kim JA, Kim DK, Kang OH, et al. Inhibitory effect of luteolin on TNF-alpha-induced IL-8 production in human colon epithelial cells. Int Immunopharmacol. 2005; 5:209-17.
7. Kotanidou A, Xagorari A, Bagli E, et al. Luteolin reduces lipopolysaccharide-induced lethal toxicity and expression of proinflammatory molecules in mice. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2002;165:818-23.
8. Ueda H, et al. A hydroxyl group of flavonoids affects oral anti-inflammatory activity and inhibition of systemic tumor necrosis factor-[alpha] production. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2004;68:119-25.
9. Klingelhoefer S, Obertreis B, Quast S, et al. Antirheumatic effect of IDS23, a stinging nettle leaf extract, on in vitro expression of T helper cytokines. J Rheumatol. 1999; 26:2517-22.
10. Konrad A, Mähler M, Arni S, et al. Ameliorative effect of IDS30, a stinging nettle leaf extract, on chronic colitis. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2005;20:9-17.
11. Teucher T, Obertreis B, Ruttkowski T et al. Cytokine secretion in whole blood of healthy subjects following oral administration of Urtica dioica L. plant extract. Arzneimitt. 1996;46:906-10.
12. Uz T, et al. Aging-associated up-regulation of neuronal 5-lipoxygenase expression: putative role in neuronal vulnerability. FASEB J. 1998;12:439-49.
13. Steele V, et al. Lipoxygenase inhibitors as potential cancer chemopreventives. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1999;8:467-83.
14. South J. America’s Inflammation Epidemic. The new “plague” of our times. Vit Res News. November 2006;20(11). Available online at www.vrp.com.
15. Neyestani TR, Gharavi A, Kalayi A. Selective effects of tea extract and its phenolic compounds on human peripheral blood mononuclear cell cytokine secretions. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2009;60 Suppl 1:79-88.
16. Walsh NE, Ramamurthy S, Schoenfeld L, et al. Analgesic effectiveness of D-phenylalanine in chronic pain patients. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 1986 Jul;67(7):436-439.
17. Menon VP, Sudheer AR. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2007;595:105-125.
18. Rao CV. Regulation of COX and LOX by curcumin. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2007;595:213-26.
19. Kimmatkar N, Thawani V, Hingorani L, et al. Efficacy and tolerability of Boswellia serrata extract in treatment of osteoarthritis of knee–a randomized double blind placebo controlled trial. Phytomedicine. 2003 Jan;10(1):3-7.
20. Urano T, Ihara H, Umemura K, et al. The profibrinolytic enzyme subtilisin NAT purified from Bacillus subtilis Cleaves and inactivates plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1. J Biol Chem. 2001 Jul 6;276(27):24690-24696.
21. Buford TW, Cooke MB, Redd LL, Hudson GM, Shelmadine BD, Willoughby DS. Protease Supplementation Improves Muscle Function after Eccentric Exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Sep 2. Published Online Ahead of Print.
22. Krishnaveni M, Mirunalini S. Therapeutic potential of Phyllanthus emblica (amla): the ayurvedic wonder. J Basic Clin Physiol Pharmacol. 2010;21(1):93-105.
23. Han Y. Rutin has therapeutic effect on septic arthritis caused by Candida albicans. Int Immunopharmacol. 2009 Feb;9(2):207-11.
24. Marzani B, Balage M, Vénien A, Astruc T, Papet I, Dardevet D, Mosoni L. Antioxidant supplementation restores defective leucine stimulation of protein synthesis in skeletal muscle from old rats. J Nutr. 2008 Nov;138(11):2205-11.
25. Netti C, Bandi C, Pecile A. Anti-inflammatory action of proteolytic enzymes of animal, vegetable or bacterial origin administered orally compared with that of known antiphlogistic compounds. Il Farmaco. 1972;27:453-466.

Several reports, commissioned over the years by mining companies and Gauteng environmental authorities have highlighted the contaminated state of the Leeuwspruit, which drains the south shaft area of the South Deep mine, and ultimately flows into the Vaal River.

Farmers in Westonaria grow crops, farm fruit, grow flowers and pursue organic farming, run dairies and graze livestock, suing the streams downstream of mines to irrigate their land.

Communities settle along the streams and abstract the water for drinking and domestic purposes and their livestock drink from streams on properties where they graze.

A water management system report concludes the total pollution load of the Leeuwspruit downstream from the South Deep mine is greater than the combined total of the actual point discharges from the mine, indicating diffuse sources, such as the tailings dam, may be contributing to the loads of the pollution.

In general, reports show, the water being discharged from mines like South Deep to the Leeuwspruit and within it do not meet quality guidelines specified uses.

Comparison of the Leeuwspruit water quality upstream and downstream indicates possible contamination from tailings dam seepage, with reports highlighting sulphate, manganese and uranium as the main parameters of concern.

One report, entitled the Impact of South Deep Gold Mine on the Water Quality of the Borehole of Portion 48 of the Farm Kalbasfontein – Piet Rheeder’s farm – shows the discharges from two mines run by South Deep and Firs Uranium Corporation are playing a role in the deteriorated state of these waters.

His borehole water is acidic, with sulphate levels, electrical conductivity, manganese and magnesium levels elevated.

The outcome of a cost apportionment, which was carried out in 2001, determined that South Deep mine contributed 43 percent of the contaminant load to the stream from 1986 to 2001.

The electrical conductivity is an indicator of the total amount of inorganic salts that is dissolved in a water sample.

“It produces negative effects on plumbing and appliances when the water is heated, such as increased corrosion and scaling”, according to the report.

The magnesium concentrations, within the range the borehole water falls, will cause diarrhoea in sensitive users, it says. – Sheree Bega. Saturday Star. October 30, 2010.

• Small particles are carried by the inhaled air stream all the way into the alveoli. Here the particles can remain for periods from weeks up to years depending on their solubility.
• Highly insoluble uranium compounds may remain in the alveoli, whereas soluble uranium compounds may dissolve and pass across the alveolar membranes into the bloodstream, where they may exert systemic toxic effects.
• In some cases, insoluble particles are absorbed into the body from the alveoli byphagocytosis into the associated lymph nodes.
• “Insoluble” particles may reside in the lungs for years, causing chronic radiotoxicity to be expressed in the alveoli.

(Reference: Water Research Commission Report 12/1/1/2006 entitled “An Assessment of Sources,Pathways, Mechanisms and Risks of Current and Potential Future Pollution of Water and Sediments in Gold-Mining Areas of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment.” Report, WRC, H Coetzee et al,  Council forGeosience. 2004. Report No 1214/1/06)

Long-Term Effects Of Mining – Environmental and Water Source Degredation

• Even though a large number of the world’s rivers are contaminated by heavy metals released from present day and historic mining operations, relatively little is known about the effects on communities that live beside and rely on these rivers for food and livelihood. One of the complications is that the toxicity of many metals is a function of such conditions as redox, pH and water hardness.
• Elevated salts and metals can also negatively affect the health of animals in many different ways, depending on the species, age, sensitivity, general health and diet of the consumer, among other factors.
• Some metals, when consumed in excess, can affect organs and the central nervous system, cause reproductive failure or birth defects, and act as cofactors in many other diseases.
• Certain receptors may be more sensitive than others, depending upon species, age, sex, season, body mass, metabolic rate, general health, diet, behaviour, etc, with younger animals and children being generally more at risk than adults under the same conditions of exposure (WHO).
• The potential for trans-generational (genetic) impacts of bioaccumulated metals and NORMs (Naturally Occurring Radiactive Materials) on biota exposed above certain thresh-holds.
• The probability that such latent impacts will only be identified and assessed over the next 100 to 500 years.

(Reference: EIA Report and EMP for AngloGold Ashanti’s West Wits Operations. 2009.)

Farmers fear for their lives and livelihoods in toxic area

If she doesn’t move, Susanna Smit could be dead in three months.  That’s the price the 65 year old could pay for living much of her life in the shadow of one of the deepest underground gold mines in the world.

“My doctor told me my lungs look like a man who has worked underground in the mines for 30 years”, says the out-of breath Smit of the progressive lung disease that first started shrinking her lungs five years ago.  “But I’ve never worked on a mine.  I’ve never smoked a day in my life and neither has my husband.”

She struggles to her feet in her neat farmhouse which lies half a kilometer from South Deep mine, operated by Gold Fields, in Westonaria, south west of Johannesburg.

Smit holds two X-rays in her hands.  One shows her shriveled lungs, the other a healthier set of lungs – but not hers.  “My doctor gave me this person’s X-ray to compare my lungs with.   You can see this person’s are sponge, but mine are hard and full of spiderwebs.”

She blames her illness on the clouds of toxic dust carried from the towering mine dumps by the merest whisper of wind into her house.

“It must be the dust I breathe in all the time because if I visit my children in the Free State, I feel better within two days and have more energy.  As soon as I come back, I’m sick again.”

Suddenly, her conversation is interrupted by a hoarse coughing fit that seizes her body and brings tears to her eyes.

“Every day I deteriorate.  I can’t breathe.  I’m tired all the time.  I was a busy lady before, I was healthy.  I milked the cows for my husband.

“Now I’m on cortisone and antibiotics for the rest of my bloody life.  The doctor told me if I don’t leave here in three months, I will be dead.”

Local doctors, reveals her husband, Martin, didn’t want to link his wife’s illness to the dust fallout.

“We’ve been to several doctors – the doctors are scared of the mines and don’t want to take them on.  Among the farmers, nobody has money to take the mines on and they know it.”

But the couple’s new doctor, based in Krugersdorp, writes that Smit’s clinical picture is “definitely aggravated by the nearby mine dump and the secondary dust cloud” surrounding the smallholding where she lives.

“X-rays can’t lie”, interjects Martin, a dairy farmer.  “Everyone who lives around here is so sick.  How come are the cancer rates so high?  I don’t think the mines know how they’ve destroyed our lives.”

He points to the clouds of whit dust filling the sky , as his For Sale sign flutters forlornly nearby.

“Look at how the dust hangs – it’s everywhere.  But the mine says this isn’t their dust and that it comes from Randfontein.

“Even when the wind is not blowing, there’s still dust coming from the mine dumps”.

Bottled water is stacked in the kitchen.  Like their neighbours, they no longer trust the water coming from their borehole.

“We’ve had lots of problems with our animals such as abortions and deformities.  But we can’t afford to buy them bottled water too and they drink the borehole water.”

Petrus and Lillian Pienaar moved to the area three years ago to be closer to the Smits – their lifelong friends.  Their house has been on the market for more than half of that time.

“No one wants to buy here”, says Lillian.  “They see the mine dumps and they’re not interested.”

The Pienaars are suspicious of the mine’s analysis of their borehole, choosing instead to fork out the money from their diminishing pension for independent water tests by the University of Cape Town.  These recommend the couple don’t drink this water because it shows signs of contamination.

The Smits and Pienaars tell how they have to replace their geyser elements every three to six months because the acidic mine water corrodes them.

Last week, they were among a group of local framers that gathered at their local library, citing the alleged impacts of mining on their health, their livestock and the agricultural potential of their increasingly tainted land.

Some have now vowed to take on the mines.

In their arsenal is Mariette Liefferink, the chief executive of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, an outspoken environmentalist, who has drawn Parliament’s attention to the poisonous legacy of mining of the Witwatersrand goldfields over the past century.

Within the heavily mined Wonderfonteinspruit catchment area, flowing between Randfontein and Potchefstroom, heavy metals and radioactive pollutants persist.

Several studies, commissioned both by the mines and the government, have shown the Leeuwspruit, which runs through Westonaria to the Vaal, is contaminated.

Liefferink repeates her call for an epidemiological study to quantify the health risks of mining in the Witwatersrand, but that is a call likely to go unanswered.

As the region’s mines have closed or been abandoned, they have left a toxic tide of acidic – and potentially radioactive – mine water to rise to the surface, contaminating waterways.

In Westonaria and its surrounds, a similar dirty picture unfolds.  “There is significant toxic and radioactive dust fallout from the South Deep Mine,” says Liefferink.  “They built the tailings dam on the fountains, you can imagine the impact on the groundwater.

“The anecdotal evidence of cancers in the Leeuwspruit area is overwhelming.  But the burden I s now on affected communities to prove there is a link with the mining waste, and, of course, it’s impossible.

“Those people that buy property where there are already existing tailings dams make an informed choice.  But people who have lived there for many years had the mines encroach upon them”.

And farmers here have a new battle on their hands – two mega mine tailings facilities, or “superdumps” proposed by Rand Uranium and Gold Fields in their vicinity, which would result in the deposit of one billion tons of uraniferous tailings.

The firms stress these facilities, if approved, will employ techniques to stop groundwater and dust pollution but residents like Susan Esterhuizen are angry at the prospect.

She lives down the road from Smit, and like her, she suffers from progressive lung disease.
At night I can’t breathe and I think it’s the dust that is making me sick.  Our houses are covered in dust.  The doctors keep telling me to stop smoking but I never have.

“A lot of the people around here have cancer and are sick.  I want us all to come together and fight the pollution.  But I would never want to leave my farm because we love our farm.”

Another growing concern is the potential contamination of crops that are then sold on to consumers, says Liefferink.

“There are large tracts of orchards in this area that bear fruit that is either sold to market or exported.

“The farmers claim the dust from the tailings dams deposit on their fruit and this is of concern.”

Esterhuizen’s neighbour, Neels van Wyk, who runs the family farm, says that on windy days, a blanket of dust from the mine dumps obscures the sky and “you can’t see in front of you.”

“That dust sits on our peaches and vegetables.  People come from all over for our peaches including Natal.  We sell to hawkers that sell to Soweto and Sebokeng.

“But the peaches don’t grow like they should anymore.  The dust kills the peaches.  We sell spinach and pumpkins too and don’t know if that’s contaminated.  We don’t know if our water is contaminated either.”

A year ago, his mother Willa, 69 contracted leukaemia, which she believes is mining related.  “The mines can’t make what they’ve done right”, she says.  “All our land is already so contaminated.”

Her son sees hope in engagement with companies like Gold Fields.

“We must try speaking to the mines.  They don’t know yet about our concerns about the water and dust pollution.”

But more and more, he is also worried by what he encounters on his farm.”

He indicates several trees on his property on which tumour-like growths protrude like boils, the mummified corpse of a mouse he discovered in the house, its spine deformed, and he points out a rooster with a deformed spine.

“I was also born with a deformed spine.  I don’t know if these things are because of mining.

“Everywhere the water goes it must be contaminated.”

A 2007 report commissioned by Gold Fields, conducted by African Environmental Development, showed evidence of mining contamination on the nearby farm of Piet Rheeder.  It highlighted how radioactive mining waste had accumulated in the Leeuwspruit catchment upstream of his farm.  His wife died from cancer of the bowel.

“Gold Fields have done tests in his dam and found it to be highly contaminated with uranium.  Its sediment is so contaminated it can be profitably mined,” says Liefferink.

“His pigs aborted and his chickens had livers the size of a hand.  His crops did not wish to grow.”

Sven Lunsche, Gold Fields spokesman, says while mining clearly does have an impact on water quality, it only acquired the mine in 2007, inheriting “significant environmental legacy issues”.

“We have focused on getting the environmental performance to the level at which our other mines operates – namely within regulated limits as determined by our previous water permits and current water use licences.

“Our policy is to investigate all allegations to determine whether our discharges cause harm, but we have, as yet, not come across evidence that South Deep is solely responsible for emissions that have damaged the health of humans or animals in the area”.

Liefferink says mining companies in the area have already bought out large tracts of farming land.

Lunsche says it has engaged with many farmers in the area “solely to find out what the perceptions are within the community” and it is not on a crusade to buy farms.

“Buying farms in cases where there is evidence of pollution is not regarded as being a desirable solution as we prefer to solve the issues and to continue supporting the farming community.”

But Noel van Nieuwenhuizen and his wife Jenny maintain the community won’t stand for more pollution and will fight the propse super dumps – or they want to be bought out.

Over 4 000 of their peach trees have died in recent years, as their tomato and chilli plantations have withered away.  They blame their borehole water, which is so corrosive it eats through their water pipes.  “In the long run they will murder my family for the sake of money”, says Van Niewenhuizen.

“Must we prove this pollution with autopsies on our family?”

Jenny adds:  “Our sheep don’t even carry full term.  Some are deformed and premature.”

Nearby horse breeder Rene Laubscher, tells of how he recently lost his wife to cancer.  His daughter is in remission from Hodgkins Lymphoma.

“I don’t know what’s in the water.  But these things don’t kill you overnight, it accumulates.  I still maintain we must get together and test the water before the super dumps come.”

A few kilometers away, Smit tells how she often thinks of her neighbour who also had lung disease.  “The mine bought his place and nine months later he died.

“I can’t sit around waiting to die like Mr. Erasmus.”

To All Media

The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) wants the South African public to know that Gauteng will not run out of water in the near future, it is also incorrect to say that 80% of South Africa’s water will be so polluted that it will not be possible for it to be treated to potable quality and that the Gauteng province will be worst affected as the Environment Conservation Association claims. Gauteng has a world class water system boosted by importing water from places such as KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. The water is purified to standards that comply with the department’s standards and these standards are fully aligned with the World Health Organization guidelines.

The Department therefore further wishes to dismiss as untrue claims that 80% of South Africa’s water resources will be polluted by 2015 to such an extent that a completely new water source must be found in the next two years. This claim appears to have no foundation or backing of a scientific nature. The Department also has no knowledge of the environmental group having had engagements with government on this matter as it is falsely claimed by members of this organization.

“Our planning teams are continuously planning well into the future for all major towns and cities in the country”, says Nobubele Ngele, the Acting Director General of Water Affairs. In fact the department has just completed a situational analysis of the water situation in the country and has published a report {integrated water resource planning report for South Africa in this regard. With regard to pollution she said that  “ Even if water contains some impurities, it can still be purified up to the SANS 241 standard, the water purification processes in SA is so well advanced that any water regardless of quality can be treated to potable (drinkable) quality”.  “Look at Anglo American” she said “They are successfully treating polluted mine water in Emhlangeni (Witbank) to drinking quality and providing this water to the local municipality”.

The views expressed by these organizations point to a lack of understanding of the water sector and developments over the past few years. The question must be asked as to how this figure of 80% was determined?  Further the threat by Fedusa to go on strike over issues of water quality is bizarre at best. In this regard however the Department acknowledges the right of union members to embark on strike action as they see fit. The Department would also like to warn against opportunistic groupings, some seeking publicity others wishing to capitalize on the fears of the public about the availability of water in Gauteng and South Africa at large in order to secure funding for their organizations.

Ngele says It is unfortunate that the issue of Acid Mine Drainage has become a band wagon for opportunistic groups to get onto. “What is becoming apparent is that this subject which poses a significant challenge is being used to advance   private interests”. The efforts of government to deal with AMD are well known. Earlier this month, the appointment of an inter-ministerial Committee on Acid Mine Drainage was announced by Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to the public. This Committee is tasked with addressing the current challenges of AMD and has already had its first meeting with the aim of charting a way forward. The Department has acknowledged the potential risks associated with mine water management and the need for a lasting solution. An announcement will be made soon through the Inter Ministerial Committee with regard to the work of a panel of experts working on this.

“We can rest assured through these and many other initiatives that the country will not face a water crisis at any time in the future” said Ngele. The Department calls on all concerned groupings, unions and individuals who wish to contribute positively to efforts to protect   this precious resource (water), to engage its officials. In its capacity as custodian of water resources in the country, DWA is committed to averting any potential water crisis.

For more information contact:

Mava B Scott
082 411 9821
scottm@dwa.gov.za

Mariette Liefferink’s Question To Ms Scott

Dear Miss Scott,

We refer to the DWA’s press statement, subjoined hereunder:

“Ngele says It is unfortunate that the issue of Acid Mine Drainage has become a band wagon for opportunistic groups to get onto. “What is becoming apparent is that this subject which poses a significant challenge is being used to advance   private interests”.

We would appreciate if the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) can please identify the individuals, opportunistic groups or organizations that use the flooding of the gold mining basins and the uncontrolled decant of AMD from the West Rand Basin to advance private interests.

I take the liberty to copy the international and national news media, and leading NGOs and civil society organizations on this e-mail and hope to be pardoned for my forwardness.  The recipients of this e-mail are however not limited to the abovementioned individuals or organizations.  In subsequent e-mails I shall forward the DWA’s press statement and the Federation for a Sustainable Environment’s above-mentioned request to additional stakeholders and news media.

Respectfully yours,

Mariette Liefferink.
CEO:  FEDERATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

Nicole Barlow’s Comment

Dear Miss Scott,

I too hope not to speak out of turn, I stand in the shadow of my learned colleague Mariette Liefferink, especially when it comes to AMD, only to wish I had achieved in my time what she has in hers, however, I can only echo her statement hereunder.

It is my understanding, and please excuse me if I’m incorrect, that government is the custodian of all water resources, which includes rivers, pans, dams and lakes.  Therefore I too, am very interested to know which “private interests” would be served by the catastrophic consequences that would follow the decant of the West Rand Basin into our rivers.

As I can only speak for the Environment and Conservation Association, I would like to re-iterate our commitment to finding an urgent solution to South Africa’s looming water crisis, by co-operating with NGO’s, government and all other stakeholders in this regard.  We trust from DWA’s subjoined press release that their invitation to work with government has now been officially extended to ALL relevant and affected parties in this matter, and we (ECA) await an invitation to join the committee to discuss potential solutions.

Yours sincerely,

Nicole Barlow
Chairperson
Environment & Conservation Association

Carin Smit’s Challenge To Ms. Scott/Government

Dear Miss Scott

It is regrettable that government takes the stance that NGO’s and other interest groups pose a threat to governmental claims regarding the water issues facing South Africa. Rather than welcome involvement and collaborate with those who have a direct, sincere and committed interest in seeing the water crisis remedies, governmental claims appear to be hostile, denialist and oppositional.

May I briefly outline what is currently taking place in one of the world’s largest democracies, India:

In 2008 I visited north India on request to offer my services as a volunteer in a project where there are more than 400 severely disabled children.  The majority suffered from cerebral palsy, were blind, deaf, deformed, mentally retarded, epileptic or had autism.  When I saw the status of these children, and the abject poverty facing the families who brought their children for help to the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children, a clinic offering Indian Neuro-therapy to these hapless children, I managed to convince a laboratory in Europe to donate lab-time and started running toxicological tests on the children (see sub-joined article).

Over a two year period our testing uncovered that more than 88% of these children were toxic with uranium levels far above WHO and international safety standards.

When these results were released as front-page news in the Times of India and Hindustan News, two of the largest newspapers internationally, as well as to CNN, BBC News and other international media representatives, the Indian and Punjabi government reacted exactly as our own government is currently reacting to the news.

Punjab health minister Lakshmi Kanta Chawla stated in April last year: “This is not a health subject. We don’t know how children are showing such high concentrations of uranium,… it is for the central government in Delhi to deal with the problem.” The Central Government, in turn, then sent in high ranking officials from the Bhaba Atomic Research Council and the Department of Atomic Energy, who took a few water and hair samples from children in the project in Faridkot and made immediate claims in the media that the uranium levels in Faridkot were well within safety limits and that the children were deformed (see photos below) due to congenital reasons and that their disease could not be blamed on the high levels of uranium.  They claimed that the testing done by the international lab was spurious and they even went ahead and threatened the project with closure if they continued speaking to the media, stating that it was beyond their remit to speak to media or drive research in this matter.

All these claims were made, despite the fact that reputable research was done more than 5 years ago by the University of Amritsar in Punjab, indicating that groundwater and pipe wells were heavily contaminated with uranium and that radon (a daughter of uranium) was elevated in houses in the Bathinda region elevating the risk of cancer in some communities thus affected more than 153 times as they reported on dose rate, cumulative dose and lifetime cancer risk – 15% of dwellings surveyed in Punjab had Radon levels which were in the “range of action” level . (Singh et al. Journal for Radiation Measurements, 39 (2005) 535 – 552.).

In July, 2010, our research was published in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal, Clinical Medicine Insights: Therapeutics, 2010:2 655-661 (12^th July, 2010).

Due to pressure brought to bear on the Indian and Punjabi governments, after our research was published in this prestigious, international scientific journal in New Zealand, the comment by LivePunjab became a stark reminder that governments cannot ignore or dismiss the work done at grassroots level by NGO’s, concerned individuals and civil stakeholders: “Joint efforts should be taken by the laboratories and governmental agencies to do follow up studies that evaluate early metal exposure in children who are living in industrial or environmentally endangered regions of the state,” claim LivePunjab.

Only now, for the first time since this story broke in the media, does it appear that the Indian government is taking the matter of high uranium levels in groundwater seriously (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101003/punjab.htm#4), as other studies have also now been concluded showing that it isn’t just uranium that is elevated in groundwater in this region, but a whole cocktail of other lethal metals and chemicals have also tested out as beyond safety levels.

Today, 18 months later, the Indian government seems to shame-facedly to acknowledge danger,  and reports are that they have started to remedy water supplies as a matter of urgency by planning to install water purification systems in every household in Punjab and have in collaboration with the Punjabi government started to take urgent steps to remedy the situation by passing tighter legislation against the dumping of “black water” into canals and other water sources.  Senior Environmental Engineer for the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has recently stated after a surprise checking campaign targeted 6 large industrial units in Patiela, Punjab: “The industries should understand that it is very important to make the rivers, drains and other water bodies of Punjab pollution free in order to build a green, healthy and nature-friendly Punjab for future generations. Hence, all the industrial units of Punjab must comply with the guidelines laid by the PPCB with respect to various types of pollution”, he added.

The sad part of this success story is that in a state with 24 million people, government knew about the water crisis for almost 6 years and millions of women fell pregnant and new babies were born over that period who were exposed to the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects of uranium as well as other lethal metals and xenobiotics materials and nothing was done, until an outside, independent agency (ourselves) went in and at great personal cost and sacrifice, challenged the Indian government.   Please see subjoined media coverage on this matter.

• HindustanTimes ePaper – Digital replica of Print Edition. http://epaper.hindustantimes.com - http://epaper.hindustantimes.com//artMailDisp.aspx?article=17_05_2009_581_012&typ=1&pub=722
• Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/30/india-punjab-children-uranium-pollution
• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Uranium-metals-make-Punjab-toxic-hotspot/articleshow/6048431.cms
• http://infochangeindia.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=7765
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7979022.stm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_poisoning_in_Punjab
• http://www.livepunjab.com/articles/study-confims-presence-uranium-punjab-19441.html
• http://www.la-press.com/metal-exposure-in-the-children-of-punjab-india-article-a2156
• http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101003/punjab.htm#4
• http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100507/punjab.htm#4
• http://www.witness84.com/water
• http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=CAP/2009/04/03&PageLabel=13&EntityId=Ar01308&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
• http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100630/punjab.htm#8
• http://www.indianexpress.com/news/malwa-belt-has-highest-number-of-breast-cancer-cases-study/688652/
• http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/chandrasekharnemani/8246
• http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/186284
• SP Sharma – Tribune News Service
• Bathinda, January 23 – The Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) has ordered the Pollution Control Board to test groundwater below ash ponds of the thermal power house of the PSEB here to see whether it contained uranium or not. In its order, dated January 14, the PSHRC has told the PSEB to take steps to reduce the uranium content within prescribed limits, in case it was found beyond the permissible limit. Taking cognizance of reports published in The Tribune regarding air pollution being caused in Bathinda due to fly ash emanating from the coal-based thermal plant and also high quantity of uranium in the groundwater, the PSHRC had earlier issued notices to the Punjab government, PSEB and Pollution Control Board. PSHRC chairperson Justice RS Mongia and other members have ordered that tests may be done at some other thermal plant to verify whether the ash pond here was causing presence of uranium in the ground water. The PSHRC suggested another test of groundwater from some place away from the ash pond to compare the uranium content. Chief engineer of the thermal plant Kamaljit Singh informed the commission that modernisation of Unit number III has been started and the work would be completed in nine months. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100124/punjab.htm#20

Despite the huge shift in thinking in India about the contamination of its water sources, acid drainage from its many thermal power plants, is still not recognised as the contaminating source – coal, when burnt for energy production, becomes a fly-ash.  This fly-ash is pumped into large, unlined fly-ash dams all over India.  The fly-ash seeps into the ground and down into the aquifer.  On its way down, it has to flow into rock formations rich in uranium.  Acid drainage, similar to what we have on the  (gold) Reef of South Africa,  releases exceptionally high quantities of toxic metals, naturally found in rock formations, such as arsenic, lead, nickel and uranium into the pristine underground aquifers and thus poisons an entire nation. Elevated levels of nitrates associated with agricultural use, can also be to blame for the acid levels in the water.

Interestingly enough, wealthy captains of industry in Punjab are making the same claims that Ms. Scott is making with regards to NGO’s, concerned individuals and civil stakeholders: “Umrao Singh, president of the Sugar Division of Chadha Estate, denied the allegations (that his liquor industry is causing severe water pollution in the region). He claimed that certain local leaders had been creating a hue and cry unnecessarily for their vested interests. He claimed that the Punjab Pollution Control Board had collected water samples from the area, which were found fit for use. The hazardous waste and air pollution are being managed as per the directions of the board”, he claimed’.

Oceans and thousands of kilometers divide us, yet, when culpability or acknowledgement of wrong has to be apportioned or accepted, similar games are played and the helpless and hapless, the poor and the marginalized suffer!

Similar claims as the one above (see subject-line) that SA’s water crisis is dire, are currently being made in India (Punjab, which means Five Rivers, has been faced with the total destruction of its pristine water sources “The Energy Research Institute, a New Delhi think tank, says that already in an agriculture-based state such as Panjaab in the north, 98 percent of ground water has been exploited. The Forum for Bio-Technology and Food Security adds that if the trend continues, the once fertile Panjaab- once known as the country’s granary – will turn into a desert,” reports Witness84.com (http://www.witness84.com/water).  At least India’s central and regional governments seem to be listening – will South Africa’s government fail this test?

On Monday, 27^th September the Environment and Conservation Association convened a group of concerned community leaders, who met in Boksburg and constituted a new organization, called Clean Water Foundation. C.W.F a national, independently constituted organisation whose aim it is to provide a comprehensive service in respect of responding to the escalating national water crisis in South Africa.

C.W.F. aims to focus their efforts on water justice and providing healthy water from source for present and future generations.

It will ensure that it offers an anonymous toll-free contact number for whistle-blowers and will be responsive to any complaints from civil and government sources regarding the intentional, negligent and/or willful destruction of South Africa’s water resources .

C.W.F. welcomes all like-minded organizations to strengthen our position nationally by joining forces with them.

Office bearers on the executive of this new Foundation are Nicole Barlow (ECA – Environment & Conservation Association), Chair person, Carin Smit (SANNC – Synapse Africa Neuro-Nutritional Clinic) Vice-Chair, Dr. Pieter van Eeden (ECA) and Johan Botha (NRA – National Ratepayers Association), as well as Irene Main (SAVE – Save the Vaal Environment) (portfolio – international liaison).

In the light of the ever increasing national water crisis, SANNC wishes to bring the following article, which appeared in INet Bridge, Sapa, Updated: 2010/09/29 - http://news.za.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=154799782

“By 2015, 80 percent of South Africa’s fresh water resources will be so badly polluted that no process of purification available in the country will be able to make it fit for consumption.”

The Environment and Conservation Association said in a statement on Tuesday that it was estimated that in five years, almost 80 percent of the country’s fresh water resources would be so badly polluted that no process of purification available in the country would be able to clean it sufficiently to make it fit for human or animal consumption.

“If we do not find a completely new source of water altogether in about two years, most of Gauteng will be without safe health drinking water.”

The impending disaster that would be created by acid mine drainage as well as sewerage and industrial pollution had on many occasions been brought to the attention of the government, however with no positive results, the association said.

The association would embark on a massive water monitoring project where it would roll out water testing and monitoring in the six major water catchments in Gauteng and Limpopo, to produce independent and accurate results of exactly how bad the country’s water was.

Those results would be released to the public and the media, both locally and internationally.

“We will need approximately R 1 million for this project. It is time that big business, especially those that rely on water for the production of their products like Coca Cola, SAB Miller, Windhoek Beer, all soft drink manufacturers and food producers, get involved and make a substantial contribution towards organisations like ours so we can save South Africa’s water.”

Water preservation and conservation was not just an environmental issue, but an economic issue.

“Almost 56 percent of the products we consume rely directly on the supply of clean healthy water, and if this water is not available, those products cannot be produced.”

“Water affects every single part of our daily lives and without it we cannot survive. We cannot eat and we will be left in a country made barren by pollution.”

Radioactivity sign at Acid Mine Drainage site on West-Rand

Over the past 6 years I have seen patients in several countries who have been tested for heavy metal toxicity.  A recent study in Punjab, India, revealed excessively high levels of uranium and other toxic metals in children in the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children, in Faridkot, Punjab.  Except for the 100+ children in Punjab whose hair analyses exceeded reference ranges for hair, another 37 patients in 5 other countries yielded test results that exceeded the reference ranges for uranium, for the respective tests. To date the source of the uranium is yet to be determined, but there are strong pointers to the thermal power plants, which produce high amounts of fly-ash, causing acid water to leech into the aquifer, disrupting the earth’s crust in rock formations in the soil of Punjab.

Outside India, the country with the next highest number of individuals exceeding the references ranges for uranium in hair, baseline urine samples and post-DMSA chelation samples was South Africa – showing past and chronic exposure. I counted 17 patients in South Africa with excessive uranium levels, 6 of whom have a diagnosis of autism (i.e. 35%). 4 Neuro-typical adults also had excessive uranium – all four had significant health challenges. 4 Children with severe learning disabilities and 3 with neurological damage (blind, oral apraxia, brain injury due to hypoxia) also had excessive uranium levels.  The source of the high uranium in South Africa is not hard to determine – South Africa has a legacy of unregulated mining dating back 120 years, resulting in high levels of acid mine drainage and radionuclides which are finding their way into the environment at an alarming rate.

In Ireland 6 patients showed excessive uranium – of these 6 individuals, 3 have a diagnosis of autism (50%, one with significant Learning disabilities and 2 are neuro-typical adults with health challenges.  My recent visit to Ireland confronted me with the shocking discovery that Europe’s largest zinc mine can be found in the Midlands of the Republic, Lisheen, and not more than 7 kilometers from Lisheen, is the lead mine of Galmoy.  Both of these mines have disturbed the earth’s crust and leech uranium rich water into the aquifer.  Large parts of  Ireland are plagued with high levels of Radon (Radon is a radioactive gas, the progeny of uranium) exceeding the safety limit by more than 20% (Radiological Protection Unit of Ireland, 2002).

Ireland - Radon map

Map Legend

Estimated percentage of homes above the Reference Level

> 20%  10% – 20%  5% – 10%  1% – 5%  < 1%

Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf, had 9 patients which excessive uranium levels. 7 of these have a diagnosis of autism (77%), 2 are neuro-typical adults with health challenges and one is both autistic and has an inborn error of metabolism (genetic abnormality).

In Botswana 2 patients had excessive levels of uranium – one an LD child and one a neuro-typical adult.

In South Korea 3 patients from one family in Daejeon tested high in uranium – one neuro-typical teenager, one neuro-typical adult and one teenager with psychiatric challenges due to Tamiflu medication during a bout of swine flu.

Excessive uranium was most commonly found in mineral hair test results (27 tests  – 55% – some patients were tested repeatedly over several years). The Post DMSA chelation urine test yielded the next highest excessive uranium results (13/49) and the baseline urine samples least often showed excessive uranium (9/49).

It would seem, from my experience with these 137 patients in 6 countries, that hair mineral tests are the most valuable measure to detect past and chronic exposure to excessive uranium. Though DMSA didn’t effectively chelate barium, cadmium, manganese or uranium in the Indian study, it chelated uranium on 13 of the 49 tests done across the population in South Africa, Ireland, Bahrain, Botswana and South Korea (26.5%).

Along with uranium, aluminium, antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, bismuth, cesium, mercury, palladium, platinum, nickel, lead, silver, thallium, tin, titanium, tungsten and zirconium were successfully chelated by means of DMSA. Arsenic, Lead, Mercury, Nickel and Palladium were by far the most successfully chelated toxic metals by means of DMSA across all 47 tests.

The mutagenic effects of uranium and its progeny are firmly documented in scientific literature.

Note from the editor of New Solutions: The Drawing Board: In the spirit of international solidarity, The Drawing Board has begun featuring articles from activists, researchers, and workers from around the world. It is our belief that we cannot effectively fight for social, economic and environmental justice in isolation, but instead must learn from and support one another. The parallels between Mexican workers’ grievances and environmental catastrophes in Ethiopia are often striking, but more often forgotten. Through our monthly posts, therefore, TDB will highlight events taking place around in the world, and advocate for greater connectedness between worker and environmental rights movements in the global north and global south. Graduate student Andrea Zeelie kicks off this effort by writing about the severity of acid mine drainage in South Africa.

Acid mine outrage: How South African communities are affected by government and industry neglect

By Andrea Zeelie

Acid mine drainage (AMD) refers to the mixing of water with toxic chemicals such as those present in heavy metals, sulphates, and radioactive uranium, which leak from abandoned mine sites into dolomitic areas underground. The contaminated water penetrates ground water sources, which in turn leach into surface water sources. This can degrade water quality to the point that it is unfit for human and animal consumption or crop irrigation. Ingestion of this toxic acid water is related to increased health risks, such as cancers.

Such pollution represents arguably the most mismanaged environmental disaster South Africa has ever witnessed. Scientists and environmentalists have battled for action since 1996, when they first became aware of potential damage. The eastern, central, and west basins of the Witswatersrand are polluted, immediately affecting residents living in half-a-dozen surrounding communities.

Government action with regards to this disaster has been varied, lethargic and confusing: any response involves five departments, each with divergent interests. In an ideal world, industry would pay to clean up the devastating amount of AMD within South Africa, under government oversight. However, extreme government inaction has led to little payments and even less accountability.

Severely delayed action undoubtedly lies in the relationship between government and the mining industry. South African mines were previously operated by a cohort known as the Big Six, which included Anglo American/De Beers; Gencor/Billiton; Gold Fields; JCI; Anglovaal; and Rand Mines. Together, they controlled more than half of the country’s economy. Their dominance waned, however, when former president Thabo Mbeki came to power: the focused shifted towards black economic empowerment, or BEE, ushering in a new wave of players comfortably connected to both the business and political elite. This second cohort could have imposed much-needed worker and environmental protections, neutralizing errors caused by their predecessors. Instead, they used their political connectedness to amass personal wealth; legitimate expectations from the country’s electorate concerning accountability, transparency and governance failed to materialize.

A third cohort followed, with the country’s current mining elite politically allied to the Jacob Zuma administration. One need only look to the pedigree of some of the country’s most prominent mining directors to become suspicious of an all-too-comfortable link: Aurora Gold, for example, is owned and operated by Zondwa Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, and Khulubuse Zuma, President Zuma’s cousin. Both were recently charged for failure to treat contaminated water for months, as management had failed to supply the necessary chemicals. The charge only occurred, however, following a barrage of bad press surrounding unpaid salaries and the death of three mineworkers. While the Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica informed the National Assembly on 19 May 2010 that prosecutions of the two directors could go ahead, skepticism remains on whether government will ultimately prosecute “family”.

Throughout the Mbeki and Zuma administrations, the lines between global mining consortiums, government, and black business have become increasingly blurred. Where acid mine drainage is concerned, governing documents such as the National Water Act, the Mine and Safety Act, the National Environmental Management Act, and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa are being chronically undermined by industry’s ties to government. As a result of the country’s post-democracy neo-liberal economic policies, continued dependence on natural resource extraction, and little distinction between the regulators and the regulated, the rights of South Africans and of the environment have become secondary to that of government officials’ prominence and payrolls.

As it stands, only short terms solutions to acid mine drainage – if any at all – have been implemented. A Remediation Action Plan of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area was constructed by the government, mining companies, and civil society organisations. Since being published in the beginning of 2009, however, no remedial action has been seen.

A long-term solution is costly, with no one willing to accept the price tag. The ‘polluter pays’ principles applies, but with high turnover in mining management, the original offenders are often no longer present, making culpability difficult. Remediation therefore becomes the government’s problem. Given that the government refuses to accept ultimate responsibility, action is deferred, with responsibility and consequences being placed on citizens.

However, activists and advocates are hopeful that strides may have finally been made, 14 years after the battle for action and accountability began. Earlier this month, criminal charges were laid against three cabinet ministers for their failure to act upon the continued pollution of the natural environment. The Agricultural Union of South Africa contends that by failing to address the severity of AMD, the ministers have failed to comply with the National Water Act. While Water Affairs Minister Sonjica did earmark R7 million ($887,000) for cleanup efforts, this is insufficient to treat contaminated water for even one month. The money has also yet to materialize.

What is required now is the continued exposure of the environmental damage, and prominent shaming of violators in the press and in public forums such as parliament, to galvanize the mines and government into action. Custodian organizations like the Agricultural Union of South Africa and the Federation for Environmental Sustainability must increasingly hold the government accountable, on behalf of all citizens.

Andrea Zeelie is pursuing her Masters in Public Health in Health Economics at the University of Cape Town. The focus of her dissertation is the political economy of acid mine drainage in South Africa.