On Monday the Diane Rehm show on NPR featured a panel talking about the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Panelists talked of liability and the pelicans and fish and engineering and government response. There were lots of questions and some actually had answers.
Then a caller asked a very interesting question. She prefaced her specific question by asking if somebody wasn't looking at the health implications of all of that oil. She said that some years ago she had spent time at the Cleveland Clinic and noticed that there were many people from Saudi Arabia who sought treatment at the ALS program at the Cleveland Clinic. She said that later she was aware of the work done in Kentucky that uncovered the correlation between military service in the first Gulf War and ALS. Those two observation made her wonder about exposure to oil being a possible factor in ALS. Nobody on the panel knew anything about ALS. Good question. Next caller, please.
So another very good question was asked. It's a question that could have huge implications beyond the immediate environmental disaster off of our shores. Will Americans be seeing in increase in ALS in the future? Will there be a BP Clinic for Motor Neurone Disease set up somewhere?
Once again, there are thousands of really good questions regarding ALS. There are no answers. That's scary.
2 comments:
One wonders if anyone other than those dying with ALS give a rats patooty (a wink to Judge Judy.)
If the oil contamination gets America aware and concerned about the possible environmental triggers of ALS, then perhaps some good will have come from this BP mess.
Post a Comment