Comments on the Chameleons Montessori school's plan to do some blood tests

Having now watched the DVD of the talk and Q&A session given by Prof. London a number of times and having written up most of the actual talk I want to offer what I think may be an important observation regarding something mentioned early on in the presentation.

I want to comment on the schools plan to conduct blood tests on the children. Brendon Bailes, the chairman of the newly formed Parent Committee and a representative of the Environmental Health Committee, advised us that they had looked into having cholinesterase tests done. He went on to explain the basics of the actual procedure and to say that parents would receive further details in the future.

Pathcare was the laboratory that was contacted and we were told a Mr Louie Birch was the person who Brendon spoke with regarding the testing. I phoned Pathcare myself, today, because it seemed quite inappropriate to bother with this specific test and I wanted to clarify that my understanding was correct.

I spoke with a Mr Cor Aalber who was extremely helpful and very happy to discuss the matter at length. He confirmed to me that cholinesterase tests will only be of any use if there has been an exposure to organophosphates. This is what I had thought.

Organophosphates work by suppressing cholinesterase that is a vital part of nerve signal transmission. By interrupting the proper functioning of the nervous system it kills pests. It works on mammals in the same way which is why it is such a hazardous chemical.

We have now been reliably reassured a number of times by Bernard Veller, the owner of Nitida, that he hasn't used Organophosphates on the farm for at least 5 years.

The obvious question to ask now is, why bother testing for something we all know isn't there?

Does the Environmental Committee not understand the subject well enough to make reasonable recommendations or is this test, which is guaranteed to show no effect, merely being proposed as a way of creating the impression that something is being done and in addition "prove" that there is no evidence of exposure?

I have begun to research what tests, if any, may be available to us that may be more suitable and will make my finding known to the Committee should they need my input.

At this point it seems that the specific tests we would need may not be available in South Africa but I will need to verify this.

To give Brandon the "right to reply" I forwarded a copy of this post to him yesterday for any comments he might see fit to add. His reply is below.

"Hi Ford,

Yes I am aware the test is for organophospahtes, and the chemical process as to what it does. The consideration was for children to have the test and in the last meeting of the EHC it was decided not to be done in children. As a random group the school has offered all staff to be tested for a baseline reading now and again when spraying does get done in October. So the testing will not be ordered to be done on children, it could be a voluntary test if so desired. This was discussed at the EHC. This test was to test a random group, being the teachers, and on a voluntary basis with no one being ordered to do the test.

. There was no intention to confuse parents as this was another suggestion for testing pesticides as it falls into the scope of IPW

I spoke to Dr. Louis Birch and he mentioned the suggestion of random testing and this has been adopted by the EHC. Prof London Concurred in the DVD that it would also not show other than organophosphates – therefore in his opinion should not be done. As expressed above this is a voluntary test if the teachers do want it done as a random group of the school.

Regards

Brendon"

Now that it's been established that the testing would be voluntary, when they can't order them anyway so they were always going to be voluntary, it still makes no sense at all to bother with this pointless test. I might speculate that this pantomime is being continued with so as to create an impression, among less well informed parents, that tests are being done....and that conveniently, the results will "prove" there's no exposure.

As for "random", how on earth can the tests be random if they are to be voluntary? Surely, if people are to be offered the choice to have the tests done this group would be self-selecting and therefore be anything but random. It would appear that the EHC is displaying, again, it complete lack of understanding of basic scientific procedures.

Perhaps it's time for these well meaning but somewhat under qualified people to recognise the serious limitations posed by their lack of understanding of this critical issue. The possible consequences should they fail to act with sufficient caution are too dreadful to contemplate.