Aral Sea (C Asia) catastrophe recorded in DNA

[Guest guest]

> Misty <misty3

> Sat, 03 Jul 2004 01:16:33 +1200

> Aral Sea (C Asia)

> catastrophe recorded in DNA

>

> Aral catastrophe recorded in DNA

>

> By David Shukman

> BBC science correspondent in Muynak, Uzbekistan

>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3846843.stm

>

>

> Saparbey Kazahbaev understands all too well what has

> happened

> Fresh fears have been raised about the health of

> populations living near

> the shrinking Aral Sea in central Asia.

> A new study has now found high levels of DNA damage

> that could explain the

> region's abnormally high cancer rates.

>

> This comes as the latest estimates say the Aral Sea

> is receding so rapidly

> it could vanish within the next 15 years.

>

> Once the world's fourth largest inland body of

> water, the sea has been

> drained by a poorly managed irrigation system that

> supplies water to cotton

> crops.

>

> Toxic mix

>

> If ever there was an example of manmade ecological

> and human catastrophe,

> the Aral Sea and the dusty, salt-encrusted lands

> around it must be the most

> vivid anywhere on the planet.

>

> DECLINE OF THE ARAL SEA

> Satellite images show how the inland water body has

> retreated

>

>

> In pictures

>

> In fact, it is no longer true to talk of the sea as

> a single entity. In the

> late 1980s, its level fell so low that the

> centuries-old body of water

> divided into two.

>

> In the last eight years, the sea has fallen another

> 5m (16ft) and soon you

> can expect official confirmation that the larger of

> its two parts has been

> divided again.

>

> What is left when these seas retreat is a vision of

> environmental

> apocalypse: vast stretches of desert, laden with

> heavy doses of salt and

> burdened with a toxic mix of chemical residues

> washed down over the decades

> from the farms upstream.

>

>

> Gone are the cooling breezes that once made the

> town of Muynak attractive.

>

> This fishing port used to boast busy docks and the

> largest fish processing

> plant in the Soviet Union.

>

> Now the sea is only reached after a long day's

> driving over harsh terrain.

> The jobs have disappeared and even the cleanest

> water is dangerously salty.

>

> Cancer rates

>

> Dust blows everywhere and carries with it toxins

> that enter the food chain.

>

> CONSEQUENCES OF SHRINKAGE

> Aral has moved 100-150km away from the original

> shore

> Fishery - 44,000 tonnes per year - has totally

> collapsed

> 42,000 sq km of new salty desert emerged since 1966

> Diseases - cholera, typhus, gastritis, blood cancer

> Highest child mortality rate in the former USSR

> The impact on public health is devastating.

> Malnutrition is rife as are

> conditions including anaemia and TB.

>

> Most alarming is a rate of a particular form of

> cancer - cancer of the

> oesophagus - that is the highest in the world.

>

> Up to 80% of cancer victims in the region suffer

> this form of cancer.

>

> For years the likely cause has been suspected to be

> the intensive use of

> pesticides and herbicides on the vast cotton fields

> to the south of the Aral

> Sea. Now new research appears to provide support for

> that.

>

> Dr Spencer Wells, of the National Geographic Society

> and formerly Oxford

> University's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human

> Genetics, studied DNA samples

> taken from the local population and found widespread

> genetic damage.

>

> The study focused on the level of a marker known as

> 8-OHdG and showed rates

> of damage 3.5 times higher than seen in samples from

> the US.

>

> In the wind

>

> In farm workers, those closest to the agricultural

> chemicals, the rate

> increased to 5 times.

>

> According to Dr Wells, the implications of this

> could be long lasting.

>

> " This means not only that people are more likely to

> get cancer but also that

> their children and grandchildren are too, " he told

> BBC News Online.

>

>

> The water has been taken to feed the " white gold " -

> cotton

> What is not proven is whether the genetic mutations

> found in the adults are

> indeed passed on to later generations. That will

> take further study.

>

> In the meantime, the cancer wards in the main

> hospital in the provincial

> capital Nukus are overburdened.

>

> One patient is 61-year-old Saparbey Kazahbaev, a

> biologist who has spent the

> last 30 years living beside the Aral Sea and

> studying the effects of its

> decline.

>

> He is now recovering from surgery to remove a tumour

> from his oesophagus.

>

> Too weak to raise himself from his bed, he explained

> in a rasping voice how

> the poisonous salts in the air have a double effect

> on humans.

>

> First they enter the respiratory system; second they

> enter the food chain

> through plants and animals that are eaten.

>

> 'No alternative'

>

> The government of Uzbekistan denies it has a major

> healthcare problem on its

> hands.

>

> The worst affected region falls in the province of

> Karakalpakstan and the

> region's deputy health minister, Atajan Hamraev,

> admitted there were

> problems but said they were under control.

>

>

> Rusting boats are grounded kilometres from the sea

> We asked him whether it was wise to continue

> growing cotton, given the way

> it soaks up all the water that used to flow into the

> Aral Sea and the new

> evidence of health risks from the chemicals sprayed

> on the crops.

>

> His response was defiant: cotton is Uzbekistan's

> biggest export earner.

>

> Mr Hamraev said that stopping the growing of cotton

> would make public health

> worse and leave stomachs empty. " There's no

> alternative, " he said.

>

> So the cotton fields are busy, the sea shrinks and

> the hospitals struggle to

> cope.

>

>

>

> E-mail this to a friend

[Guest guest]

Frank, This message really makes the Native American saying take on a new

level of meaning...

The Great Spirit

Is in all things; He is in the air we breathe.

The Great Spirit is our Father,

but the earth is our Mother.

She nourishes us; that which we put into the ground She returns to

us..........

Big Thunder (Bedagi) late 19th century Wabanaki Algonquin

-

" Frank " <califpacific

<alternative_medicine_forum >

Friday, July 09, 2004 2:05 PM

Aral Sea (C Asia) catastrophe recorded

in DNA

 

 

>

> > Misty <misty3

> > Sat, 03 Jul 2004 01:16:33 +1200

> > Aral Sea (C Asia)

> > catastrophe recorded in DNA

> >

> > Aral catastrophe recorded in DNA

> >

> > By David Shukman

> > BBC science correspondent in Muynak, Uzbekistan

> >

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3846843.stm

> >

> >

> > Saparbey Kazahbaev understands all too well what has

> > happened

> > Fresh fears have been raised about the health of

> > populations living near

> > the shrinking Aral Sea in central Asia.

> > A new study has now found high levels of DNA damage

> > that could explain the

> > region's abnormally high cancer rates.

> >

> > This comes as the latest estimates say the Aral Sea

> > is receding so rapidly

> > it could vanish within the next 15 years.

> >

> > Once the world's fourth largest inland body of

> > water, the sea has been

> > drained by a poorly managed irrigation system that

> > supplies water to cotton

> > crops.

> >

> > Toxic mix

> >

> > If ever there was an example of manmade ecological

> > and human catastrophe,

> > the Aral Sea and the dusty, salt-encrusted lands

> > around it must be the most

> > vivid anywhere on the planet.

> >

> > DECLINE OF THE ARAL SEA

> > Satellite images show how the inland water body has

> > retreated

> >

> >

> > In pictures

> >

> > In fact, it is no longer true to talk of the sea as

> > a single entity. In the

> > late 1980s, its level fell so low that the

> > centuries-old body of water

> > divided into two.

> >

> > In the last eight years, the sea has fallen another

> > 5m (16ft) and soon you

> > can expect official confirmation that the larger of

> > its two parts has been

> > divided again.

> >

> > What is left when these seas retreat is a vision of

> > environmental

> > apocalypse: vast stretches of desert, laden with

> > heavy doses of salt and

> > burdened with a toxic mix of chemical residues

> > washed down over the decades

> > from the farms upstream.

> >

> >

> > Gone are the cooling breezes that once made the

> > town of Muynak attractive.

> >

> > This fishing port used to boast busy docks and the

> > largest fish processing

> > plant in the Soviet Union.

> >

> > Now the sea is only reached after a long day's

> > driving over harsh terrain.

> > The jobs have disappeared and even the cleanest

> > water is dangerously salty.

> >

> > Cancer rates

> >

> > Dust blows everywhere and carries with it toxins

> > that enter the food chain.

> >

> > CONSEQUENCES OF SHRINKAGE

> > Aral has moved 100-150km away from the original

> > shore

> > Fishery - 44,000 tonnes per year - has totally

> > collapsed

> > 42,000 sq km of new salty desert emerged since 1966

> > Diseases - cholera, typhus, gastritis, blood cancer

> > Highest child mortality rate in the former USSR

> > The impact on public health is devastating.

> > Malnutrition is rife as are

> > conditions including anaemia and TB.

> >

> > Most alarming is a rate of a particular form of

> > cancer - cancer of the

> > oesophagus - that is the highest in the world.

> >

> > Up to 80% of cancer victims in the region suffer

> > this form of cancer.

> >

> > For years the likely cause has been suspected to be

> > the intensive use of

> > pesticides and herbicides on the vast cotton fields

> > to the south of the Aral

> > Sea. Now new research appears to provide support for

> > that.

> >

> > Dr Spencer Wells, of the National Geographic Society

> > and formerly Oxford

> > University's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human

> > Genetics, studied DNA samples

> > taken from the local population and found widespread

> > genetic damage.

> >

> > The study focused on the level of a marker known as

> > 8-OHdG and showed rates

> > of damage 3.5 times higher than seen in samples from

> > the US.

> >

> > In the wind

> >

> > In farm workers, those closest to the agricultural

> > chemicals, the rate

> > increased to 5 times.

> >

> > According to Dr Wells, the implications of this

> > could be long lasting.

> >

> > " This means not only that people are more likely to

> > get cancer but also that

> > their children and grandchildren are too, " he told

> > BBC News Online.

> >

> >

> > The water has been taken to feed the " white gold " -

> > cotton

> > What is not proven is whether the genetic mutations

> > found in the adults are

> > indeed passed on to later generations. That will

> > take further study.

> >

> > In the meantime, the cancer wards in the main

> > hospital in the provincial

> > capital Nukus are overburdened.

> >

> > One patient is 61-year-old Saparbey Kazahbaev, a

> > biologist who has spent the

> > last 30 years living beside the Aral Sea and

> > studying the effects of its

> > decline.

> >

> > He is now recovering from surgery to remove a tumour

> > from his oesophagus.

> >

> > Too weak to raise himself from his bed, he explained

> > in a rasping voice how

> > the poisonous salts in the air have a double effect

> > on humans.

> >

> > First they enter the respiratory system; second they

> > enter the food chain

> > through plants and animals that are eaten.

> >

> > 'No alternative'

> >

> > The government of Uzbekistan denies it has a major

> > healthcare problem on its

> > hands.

> >

> > The worst affected region falls in the province of

> > Karakalpakstan and the

> > region's deputy health minister, Atajan Hamraev,

> > admitted there were

> > problems but said they were under control.

> >

> >

> > Rusting boats are grounded kilometres from the sea

> > We asked him whether it was wise to continue

> > growing cotton, given the way

> > it soaks up all the water that used to flow into the

> > Aral Sea and the new

> > evidence of health risks from the chemicals sprayed

> > on the crops.

> >

> > His response was defiant: cotton is Uzbekistan's

> > biggest export earner.

> >

> > Mr Hamraev said that stopping the growing of cotton

> > would make public health

> > worse and leave stomachs empty. " There's no

> > alternative, " he said.

> >

> > So the cotton fields are busy, the sea shrinks and

> > the hospitals struggle to

> > cope.

> >

> >

> >

> > E-mail this to a friend