I'm trying to make an overwhelming case for a specific disease and toxin at a particular time and place, and see where that leads. Please bear with me!

Dan - I have enjoyed your series and appreciate the case that you are making. I look forward the the rest of the series

In order to make the broad case that poliomyelitis epidemics have environmental co-factors, and that this paradigm applies to many diseases and disorders including autism, I'm focusing on one single epidemic (Northeast, 1916) and one single co-factor (arsenic) that I believe can be convincingly connected. So I'm not discounting DDT or the fact that immune deficiency plays a role in a disease like poliomyelitis, or that many other illnesses may behave this way. I buy that. The problem is that most people don't. I'm trying to make an overwhelming case for a specific disease and toxin at a particular time and place, and see where that leads. Please bear with me!

TCBronson Reminded us that there are three polio virus responsible.
Which brings us back to three in the DPT, Three in the MMR.

Those three along with a suppressed immune system, the making of ATP being interred with because of arsenic. Eating sugar causing a blood sugar spike that would then fall, and then arsenic causing low blood sugar. What would happen if you ate sugar that spiked blood sugar but that sugar had something in it to make it drop. My guess would be a rapid yo-yo. .

Mad King George III with the arsenic in his hair first exhibited they thought "hereditary porphyria" from a very distant - three if not more - times great - grand mother. His skin turned purple.

Porphyria can also be acquired by heavy metal poisoning from both arsenic or mercury.

There are also two types of porphyria, the internal - causing severe stomach pain - throwing up - as well as affecting the internal organs/ The second type affects the skin some times wher the sun hits it, or it gets too cold All coming from the damaged heme, thus affecting the ability of the blood to carry oxygen. IT also involves the small blood vessels.

Dan Olmsted,

"what might cause arsenic to suppress the immune system is a mystery to me"

If you access the Pubmed version of Medline, and enter the query ARSEN* AND IMMUN* AND SUPPRESS*, you should get over 100 'hits'. They address myriad issues of suppression of the immune system by arsenic. Two representative abstracts are below. The first reflects recent interest in arsenic compounds as anticancer agents. The second reflects environmental arsenic exposures' effects on the immune system. A more complex query would undoubtedly retrieve many more such articles.

ARSENIC TRIOXIDE AND MELARSOPROL INDUCE APOPTOSIS IN PLASMA CELL LINES AND IN PLASMA CELLS FROM MYELOMA PATIENTS.
Recent data have renewed the interest for arsenic-containing compounds as anticancer agents. In particular, arsenic trioxide (As2O3) has been demonstrated to be an effective drug in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia by inducing programmed cell death in leukemic cells both in vitro and in vivo. This prompted us to study the in vitro effects of As2O3 and of another arsenical derivative, the organic compound melarsoprol, on human myeloma cells and on the plasma cell differentiation of normal B cells. At pharmacological concentrations (10(-8) to 10(-6) mol/L), As2O3 and melarsoprol caused a dose- and time-dependent inhibition of survival and growth in myeloma cell lines that was, in some, similar to that of acute promyelocytic leukemia cells. Both arsenical compounds induced plasma cell apoptosis, as assessed by 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining, detection of phosphatidylserine at the cell surface using annexin V, and by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labeling assay. As2O3 and melarsoprol also inhibited viability and growth and induced apoptosis in plasma-cell enriched preparations from the bone marrow or blood of myeloma patients. In nonseparated bone marrow samples, both arsenical compounds triggered death in myeloma cells while sparing most myeloid cells, as demonstrated by double staining with annexin V and CD38 or CD15 antibodies. In primary myeloma cells as in cell lines, interleukin 6 did not prevent arsenic-induced cell death or growth inhibition, and no synergistic effect was observed with IFN-alpha. In contrast to As2O3, melarsoprol only slightly reduced the plasma cell differentiation of normal B cells induced by pokeweed mitogen. Both pokeweed mitogen-induced normal plasma cells and malignant plasma cells showed a normal nuclear distribution of PML protein, which was disrupted by As2O3 but not by melarsoprol, suggesting that the two arsenical derivatives acted by different mechanisms. These results point to the use of arsenical derivatives as investigational drugs in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

HEALTH EFFECTS OF EARLY LIFE EXPOSURE TO ARSENIC.
Inorganic arsenic is a potent human carcinogen and general toxicant. More than one hundred million people are exposed to elevated concentrations, mainly via drinking water, but also via industrial emissions. Arsenic is metabolized via methylation and reduction reactions, methylarsonic acid and dimethylarsinic acid being the main metabolites excreted in urine. Both inorganic arsenic and its methylated metabolites easily pass the placenta and both experimental and human studies have shown increased risk of impaired foetal growth and increased foetal loss. Recent studies indicate that prenatal arsenic exposure also increases the risk of adverse effects during early childhood. There is a growing body of evidence that the intrauterine or early childhood exposure to arsenic also induces changes that will become apparent much later in life. One epidemiological study indicated that exposure to arsenic in drinking water during early childhood or in utero was associated with an increased mortality in young adults from both malignant and non-malignant lung disease. Furthermore, a series of experimental animal studies provide strong support for late effects of arsenic, including various forms of cancer, following intrauterine arsenic exposure. The involved modes of action include epigenetic effects, mainly via DNA hypomethylation, endocrine effects (most classes of steroid hormones), immune suppression, neurotoxicity, and interaction with enzymes critical for foetal development and programming.

I had polio aged 10months and have lived with the paralytic result ever since. It is well known that out of 100 people who contract the virus only one or so will actually get any resulting paralysis. It requires over %50 motor neuron mortality before reinnervation is insufficient to retain full motor capacity. For those 99 who escaped the symptoms the immune was able to confine the virus to the stomach and prevent it from entering the blood circulation system which enabled it to attack the anterior horn cells in the spinal chord and do the damage. Paralytic and/or bulbar Polio has always been a combination of the virus and an immune deficiency. Arsenic may well have contributed to that, as may have many other assaults on the immune system. DDT is also thought to have been a contributing factor. These days there are many Emerging Chemicals of Concern (ECC) and they show up in our wastewater systems in frightening abundance. The regulatory framework for dealing with these is stacked towards allowing manufactures to make a profit with out having to take responsibility for the damage that is caused because risk analysis requires proof of damage rather than proof of safety. I encourage you to look at all the spikes in the epidemic and changes in the use of pesticides - there may well be a connection, however there will always be multiple factors involved so the story is always complex, not nearly satisfying as identifying the one cause and effect.

Ronald Kostoff: You say " As I remember the literature when I was doing my study, none of the drug treatments worked," You're right. But, it's NOT that the "none of the drug treatments worked" -- in reality, the drug treatments actually killed most all the "SARS" victims.

Yep, you're right, "none of the drug treatments worked."

You might open your mind that some Medical Cartel contrived variation of the coronavirus carries no weight, because if you look a little bit further (it's not hard) you will find abundant references that cite 'coronavirus' was found in only a minority of SARS cases; the Medical Cartel just makes it up as they go along, and the hopelessly ignorant Media reporters parrot what they are given.

You also should seriously look up the incredible lethal toxicity of Ribavirin. I've got news for you, it doesn't take "peer reviewers", mostly in the pocket of the Pharma Industry, to judge my pharmaceutical reading of the toxicities of nucleoside analogues that are dispensed like aspirin the last couple decades, as in the SARS Farce.

It just take a literate motivated citizen (in my case, involved in science my whole life) who is not in Pharma's pocket to make rational analyses. For too long, "peer reviewed" has been corrupted and compromised. Good luck if "peer reviewed" is your touchstone.

Regarding the treated wood, don't burn it:
Reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association
May 11, 1984, Volume 251
Copyright 1984, American Medical Association
Brief Reports
Seasonal Arsenic Exposure From Burning Chromium-Copper-Arsenate-Treated Wood
Henry A.Peters, MD; William A.Croft, DVM, PhD; Edwin A.Woolson, PhD; Barbara A.Darcey; Margaret A.Olson
• All eight members of a rural Wisconsin family experienced recurring neurological and medical illness over three years, especially during the winter months. Arsenic, in concentrations of 12 to 87 ppm, was noted in the hair of the mother and father, and analysis of hair and fingernails of all family members demonstrated pathological levels of arsenic. For four years the five-room home had been heated with a small wood stove in which outdoor or marine plywood and wood remnants had been preferentially burned. Stove ashes that contained more than 1,000 ppm of arsenic contaminated the living area, and the ratio of copper, chromium, and arsenic pentoxide in this ash matched the ratio used in the chromium-copper-arsenate-treated wood.

Jenny,

"Ronald, do you currently have information in your archives or your research about the presence of arsenic in food sources, how arsenic affects the nervous system and immune system, how it affects viruses and their ability to produce paralysis? Can you please share it?"

In my eBook (Pervasive Causes of Disease), I identified about 800 pervasive causes, including arsenic. The pervasive causes were defined as those contributing to a threshold number of diseases. However, the total numbers of contributing factors identified were closer to 8,000, where obviously most of them were not pervasive based on the contents of the existing biomedical literature. I suspect many more than the 800 were pervasive, but the research linking them to disease had either not been performed or had been suppressed.

I think these analyses run into problems when they look for THE cause of a particular disease. There are so many combinations of toxic stimuli to which we are exposed, where the constituents are at different time-dependent concentrations, and where our intrinsic susceptibilities differ, that I would hesitate assigning numbers to any constituent.

Think about the MMR vaccine and its relation to autism. If you were to base an analysis strictly on the published literature, giving appropriate weights to the 'quality' of the journals involved, the numbers you would obtain would be very different from what is probably occurring in the real world. I'm finding it's a sufficient challenge just to identify potential contributing factors to any disease from what I view as a corrupted biomedical literature, much less to start assigning weights to any particular contributors.

@dan

We are on the same page that arsenic can suppress the immune system, resulting in higher rates of paralysis and death.

But what is the mechanism by which it works? Since we know that low-blood-glucose suppresses the immune system and makes it less able to prevent serious polio complications, it could be that arsenic suppresses the immune system by causing functional hypoglycemia; it's also possible that arsenic and deoxysugar contaminants work synergistically to lower blood glucose.

Ronald, do you currently have information in your archives or your research about the presence of arsenic in food sources, how arsenic affects the nervous system and immune system, how it affects viruses and their ability to produce paralysis? Can you please share it?

If you don't have them at this time because it's been flying under your radar, since the presence of arsenic seems to be a huge problem in many countries, for instance in their water, can you add its effects into your risk calculations, and share the analysis? I'm assuming that since you deal in the realm of calculating multiple or synergistic environmental exposures that adding one more, or combining certain ones probably comes as second nature to you at this point.

Dan Olmstead,

"i'm trying to explain what made the poliovirus cause poliomyelitis but only in a small number of the infected children"

Isn't that the central problem for most 'toxic' stimuli? Not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, but more do than expected randomly. Not everyone who eats a high-fructose diet gets diabetes, but more do than expected randomly. Not every cell phone user ends up with brain cancer, but more do than expected randomly. And, closer to home, not everyone who gets the MMR vaccine ends up with autism.

Obviously, other contributing factors are required, and they may be different for different people because of individual susceptibility differences. I did a study on the SARS pandemic of 2002-2003, looking for potential novel treatments. In doing the background survey for the final paper, I found that about 8,000 people presented with SARS symptoms, and about 800 of those died. But, those 800 were not a representative sample of the total 8,000. They had substantially more co-morbidities (other illnesses to start) than the ones who survived. The coronavirus was effectively the 'straw that broke the camel's back'!

What was also interesting that blood samples of people in highly affected regions taken during the pandemic were examined after the pandemic for presence of the coronavirus. There were many people who exhibited antibodies to the coronavirus, but who exhibited no symptoms of SARS whatsoever. So, their immune systems were sufficiently strong and unburdened to be able to handle the toxic stimulus in the way Nature intended!

I would suspect something similar is at work for the poliovirus-poliomyelitis connection. Different people were exposed to different combinations of potentially toxic stimuli, which were enough to impact the immune system adversely, and allow the virus to result in the symptoms of polio. Looking for THE cause is probably too restrictive. As I have posted previously, I believe combinations of potentially toxic stimuli (e.g., wireless radiation, glyphosate, etc) are responsible for the potential MMR vaccine-autism linkage.

It's always been the heavy metals in my opinion. On a volcanic island there would be all kinds of other heavy metals. Arsenic from weed killers and maybe just the water already has arsenic. Added to that the lead and mercury and we have a fairly toxic mix.

The main point at the moment is the arsenic pesticide and sugar cane, and the subsequent happenings. However, the question of dye in carpet was also intriguing.

In the mid-1970's I was in some large satellite office of IBM; not their headquarters building, but a rather large building in "flyover country."

Either the building was new, or the carpeting was. It was close to their trademark royal color, very intense, a bit darker.

It made me very, very allergic. After a while, I had to leave the building. Within the following six months or so, the same thing happened in a small auditorium -- newly built -- with that same intense blue carpeting. Same extreme allergy.

Today I wonder what was used to create that color. Aniline is the first thing that comes to mind. There is an interesting history of aniline in Scientific American. It's an excerpt from a book written by Dan Fagin, a well-known and well-respected science writer.

The title of the book is Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation.