"Pseudo
Iron Deficiency" as a possiblemarker for ELF/EMF exposure (12/7/02)
Tramès per Miguel Muntané
Estudio
Francés que observa un extraño estado de la sangre (deficiencia pseudo-hierro)
que fue aparentemente asociada con residencia prolongada a exposiciones
de 2 miliGauss (= 0,2 uT) y más
---- Mensaje original -----
De: "Don Maisch" <yahoo@emfacts.com>
Para: <emfacts@yahoogroups.com.au>
Enviado: Jueves, 11 de Julio de 2002 02:57 a.m.
Asunto: [emfacts] (Message # 252) "Pseudo Iron Deficiency" as
a possiblemarker for ELF/EMF exposure
The following is taken from a report I compiled
last year about a French study that observed an unusual blood condition
(pseudo iron
deficiency) that was apparently associated with prolonged residential
exposures of 2 milliGauss (= 0.2 uT) and more.
I have given a copy of the report to a Melbourne diagnostic laboratory
and they can easily test for the condition with a blood
sample. What is especially of interest is that the possibility exists
that this condition may be a "marker" for ill health resulting
from
prolonged EMF exposure.
Inquiries made as to why the people in question were being sent
to the hospital revealed symptoms of CFS.
*******************************************************************************
"Pseudo-iron deficiency in a French population living near high-voltage
transmission lines: a dilemma for clinicians"
by Eric Hachulla, Marie-ThÇräse Caulier-Leleu, Odile Fontaine, Lofti Mehianoui,
Paul Pelerin
European Journal of Internal Medicine, Volume (issue): 11 (6) 2000 (pp
351 -- 352)
The observation during the years 1993-1994 of an unexplained iron deficiency
in a number of patients from the same small, northern French village (Coutiches,
50 31' latitude north and 3 15' lontitude east, altitude 24-31m: a dormatory
suburb of a large nearby conurbation) [1] prompted us to evaluate the
iron profile and iron metabolism in subjects from this village who live
in proximity to
high-voltage (2x400kV) 50-60 Hz transmission lines.
A Mag check 50+ and a matrix MX 52 multimeter were used to measure electromagnetic
field (EMF) levels at 50 Hz. At 1.50 m overhead, EMF levels varied from
4.8 uT (48 mG) under the lines to 0.2 uT (2 mG) at 100m from the lines.
A total of 15/31 men (48.4%) (P<0.05 compared with controles), and
13/34 women (38.2%) had a low iron level but none had anemia. While none
of the male subjects had a low ferritin level, 7/34 women (20.6%) did.
Among the 13/34 women with a low iron level, only three had a low
ferritin level (15/31 men (48.4%) and 10/34 women (29.4%) had a low iron
level, but no anemia and normal ferritin level; P<0.05 compared with
control, respectively). These results were much higher than those normally
observed in the general population, i.e. the prevalence of iron deficiency
is usually less than 25% in women and less than 5% in men [2-4].
Four male inhabitants with typical low iron levels and normal ferritin
levels had a myelogram. Cell distribution was normal and the percentage
of erythroblasts without iron granules was 56, 68, 73 and 87%, respectively.
In two cases, iron in macrophage was absent.
Three of the males described above had isotopic explorations (more details
of the method in Ref.[5] ). We found a high red cell 59Fe
incorporation in all cases (85, 85, and 95% respectively: normal 65-75%)
with a fast injected plasma 59 Fe epuration in one case (T=65 min. normal:110-120
min). The red cell half-life was normal in all three cases (25, 26.5,
and 28 days, respectively). Plasma iron clearance was normal in all cases
( 65, 80, and 115 min, respectively; normal: 60-140 min). In three
cases (surface counting), a fast 59Fe bone marrow incorporation with a
fast regression of radioactivity was observed. In one case, no liver radioactivity
was found; in the two other cases, only a minute amount of radioactivity
was observed in the liver. 59Fe uptake studies were similar to those of
'classic' iron deficiency but with normal ferritin levels, which is normally
the first biological marker to decrease.
The diminution of iron levels may have been due to the intensity of the
EMFs but also to the cumulative dose and to the number of hours of exposure
per day. We also observed individual susceptibility, as a low iron level
was not observed in all of the members of the same family, and in the
same individuals the iron level varied during this time. This is not unique
to the Coutiches population. Since the beginning of this study we have
seen other subjects who live in proximity to high-voltage lines (e.g.
in Bolezeele, another northern French village) with sometimes the same
iron profile in the population near the EMFs.
We speculate that EMFs may modify iron metabolism in populations subjected
to 0.2 uT (2 mG) or more with a high bome marrow incorporation of the
iron (that would explain the low iron level) and a rapid utilization for
the metabolism of hemoglobin, sometimes with non-incorporation of 59Fe
in the liver. There is currently no data about modification of iron metabolism
in patients living near EMFs. These spurious results plead for a larger
study to confirm our observations.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to J.M. Provincial and the Comite' des Riverains SOS Environment
of Coutiches for their technical assistence. We thank Dr. J.J. Huart for
providing the control group, Dr. Th. Perez for statistical advice, Dr.
J. Kerr-Conte of the Laboratoire de Culture Cellulaire, Faculte' de
Medecine de Lille and R. Medeiros, English professor from the medical
university of Rouen for the English translation and corrections, and M.
Tomezak for typing the manuscript.
References
[1] Santini R. Presentation de cas particuliers. In: Notre sante face
aux champs electriques et magnetiques. Des faits scientifiques aux conscils
pratiques. Sully Eds. 1995. p. 81.
[2] Expert Scientific Working Group. Summary of a report on assessment
of the iron nutritional status of the United States population. Am J Clin
Nutr 1984; 42:1318.
[3] Galen P, Yoon HC, Preziosi P, Viteri F, Valeix P, Fietix B et
al. Determining factors in the iron status of adult women in the SUVLMAX
study. Supplementation en vitamines et mineraux antioxydants. Eur J Clin
Nutr 1998; 52: 383-8.
[4] US Department of Health and Human Services.
Hematological and nutritional biochemistry reference data for persons
6 months - 74 years of age: United States. 1976-80. Vital Health Series
1982; 232:173.
[5] Patterson KG, Richards JDM, The use of radioisotopes in haematology.
Blood Rev 1992; 6:1-9.
************************************************
Dr. Hachulla's oral presentation at the conference,"Biological and
medical effects of high tension electrical equipment", held at Assemblee
Nationale (French Congress), Paris, March 26, 1999.
Transcript by Jean-Pierre Lentin
"Here are some basics in order to understand what we have found.
Humans have approximately 30 grams of iron in their body. There are 2
methods for evaluating iron stocks in the organism. The indirect method
measures seric iron (iron in blood). Many of you must have had a seric
iron control. It is well known that seric iron is often diminished in
women with abundant menstruation. This can be a direct sign of iron deficiency,
but it's a crude indication, because there are many individual variations.
There is another method that is more elegant and interesting for demonstrating
an iron deficiency. Here we measure the increase of a protein that transports
iron, called siderophilin or transferrin. And another method for measuring
iron stocks more precisely is dosing ferritinemia. When you have diminished
seric iron and an iron deficiency is suspected, one measures ferritinemia
in order to know whether it's a real iron deficiency.
In the blood plasma, iron is transported on a protein called transferrin.
The normal destiny of iron is to enter the haeme which will, in the blood
marrow, permit the making of haemoglobin, which is a structure in the
red cell that carries oxygen towards the tissues. The destiny of the red
cells is that they get old and die in the reticulo-endothelial system,
notably the macrophage system, and notably in the spleen. We have iron
stocks because all our iron is not circulating. These stocks are located
in several places, and they are notably evident through ferritinemia.
In normal conditions iron is transported by transferrin and this transferrin
is saturated by one third. When there is an iron deficiency, the organism
increases hepatic production of transferrin, so there will be more transferrin,
but there is not enough iron to transport. In the true deficiency transferrin
is increased, and also transferrin's transport capacity, with more binding
sites, but still we have decreased seric iron.
I am a clinician in internal medicine and I was astonished, in 1996 -
1997, by the arrival to my consultation of several people who had strange
seric assays, that were done in other labs in town and confirmed by our
own lab, with perturbations that I could not explain. The first one was
a little girl. At first I did not take it seriously, I thought it was
a lab error or an individual variation. Then there were 4 men, with decreased
seric iron, which is rare in men, and they had no anaemia, haemoglobin
rate was normal, iron stocks were normal, ferritinemia was normal. But
these 4 patients had also increased levels of transferrin, so they appeared
to have iron deficiency, but really there was no deficiency, and this
corresponded to nothing known.
As I am curious as a clinician, I wondered why they had this biological
profile, and I found they were all living in the same village, Coutiches.
So I went there. It's close to Douai, not very far from Lille. Since 1991
there are high tension lines, of 2 x 400 000 volts. The village has approximately
2000 inhabitants, altitude varies from 24 to 31 meters. Some houses are
right under the lines. Measures of EM fields have been done repeatedly.
Here are the measures taken on 15th of July, 1996, at 11 PM. Right under
the line we have 50 mG (milliGauss), at 100 m from the line it goes down
to 2 mG. These levels vary very little from day to day, we have 20 % variations
- we know that thanks to measures done regularly by the association Environnement-Coutiches.
In order to try to understand, we took biological samples, with their
consent, from 31 men, 34 women and 26 children, all living in
Coutiches, less than 200 m from the lines. No woman was pregnant, nobody
took iron supplementation, no one had an inflammatory syndrome - those
are interference causes. Each person was living at least 8 hours in this
perimeter. Then we made up a control population, with the help of Lille
blood transfusion center, people who were recent blood donors, matched
in age and gender.
Here are the first results. People with decreased seric iron : men, 48,4
%, women, 38,2 %, children, 34 %. In the control population, it was 20
% for women and 15 % for men. Nobody had anaemia, according to haemoglobin
levels. Seric iron rates in men varied from 33 to 82, where the normal
rate is above 90. For women rates were 40 to 63, normal rate being above
70. The normal rate of transferrin in our lab is 350. But here this rate
was increased, both in men and women. It was as if the organism sought
to compensate a lack by increasing hepatic synthesis of this iron-carrying
protein. Ferritinemia was normal for average values, and even for extreme
values, no man had a low ferritinemia, so no man had true iron deficiency.
3 women out of 13 had low ferritinemia, and 1 child out of 9. So we found,
on a larger scale, what we had found with the first 4 patients. Even if
it is a small population sample, we see a distinct tendancy. I tried to
figure if these modifications might be linked to intensity of EM fields.
I separated the people living less than 60 m from the line, from those
living farther. At less than 60 m, iron level, in the global population,
is slightly lower, and so is ferritinemia. Binding capacity of the protein
is slightly higher. There is no increase of haemoglobin levels. These
variations are not statistically significant, the sample is too small,
we need a bigger sample. On haemoglobin levels, there is a trend towards
inverse correlation with distance from the line. Nearer to the line, levels
appear higher. You will understand why later.
Levels of seric iron, in the adult population of Coutiches, compared to
control population, have very significant differences. Average is 85 for
Coutiches residents and 107 for control population. Also the proportion
: 15 out of 31 men had decreased levels in Coutiches, 5 out of 31 for
controls. For women the difference is not significant, but it exists :
13 women out of 34 in Coutiches, 7 out of 34 in controls. For a decreased
seric iron level with normal ferritinemia, we have 15 men out of 31 in
Coutiches, 2 out of 31 in controls. This is highly significant, and it's
also significant for women. We have here a typical profile of people exposed
to EM fields. Why does it also appear in a small number of controls? Maybe
because they are also exposed to one of the many EM sources in the environment.
In order to explain that, we had to search if there was a modification
in iron metabolism. So we had to study bone marrow. We took sternal samples
from 4 people, and we did an isotopic exploration of radioactive iron,
in order to follow the iron metabolism and the path of iron through the
organism. 3 people took this test, which is very long, they had
to go daily at the hospital. On myograms, their marrow is normally rich,
but, astonishingly, poor in iron. Incorporation of radioactive iron injected
through the veins in the marrow is rapid and almost complete - in a normal
person, incorporation is rarely more than 60 or 80 %. And we did an external
count of radioactivity of Fe59 injected in the organism, we sawthat iron
is very rapidly incorporated in bone, where haemoglobin synthesis takes
place, then very quickly evacuated from the bone. Also, probably, red
cells are rapidly ejected by the bone marrow. Iron, which is normally
stocked in the liver and spleen, is depleted and rapidly evacuated by
normal stocking organs. And after 6 days there is nothing left. This kind
of profile is exactly the profile of iron deficiency, But there is no
deficiency, since ferritinemia is normal.
Our working hypothesis is that there is probably a displacement of iron
from some part of the organism to others, in order to have a
rapid synthesis of haeme and haemoglobin, and this may explain that, nearer
to the HT line, there is higher haemoglobin levels. This is probably linked
to EM fields intensity and cumulative doses. Clearly, there are individual
susceptibilities. We also observed that the iron parameters would return
to normal when people moved from the exposed residence, and it took several
months. And this is not a "Coutiches effect", because we observed
the same thing with residents of Bolezeele. "
************************************************
Summary by Jean-Pierre Lentin < jplentin@club-internet.fr
>
Coutiches is a village near Lille, in the North of France, situated right
under a big HT line (2 x 400 kV). It was a famous case in the early 1990s,
with lots of citizen protests, media reports, court cases, some medical
studies - all to no avail. No health risk was acknowledged, most inhabitants
eventually left, EDF (Electricite de France, the national grid company)
bought the houses, many of them are empty now...
In 1991, an agreement was reached with EDF (Electricite de France), the
national power company. A regular medical follow-up of residents would
be financed by EDF, on 117 residents, having a check-up and blood analysis
every 6 months. Pr Paul Pelerin, from Lille General Hospital, headed the
medical team.
Initial findings:
The first findings were presented at Assemblee Nationale in 1994. Along
with the symptoms below, iron deficiency (ferritinemia) was
found from regular blood analysis. ( Now the new research, with more precise
and thorough analysis, shows it's a "pseudo-deficiency").
Reported symptoms were :
- general tiredness (chronic fatigue)
- headaches
- insomnia, especially in children
- hypernervosity
- hypotension
- iron deficiency ( since identified as pseudo iron deficiency)
- 2 cases of severe anxiety /depression
- one resident died from bone marrow cancer in September 1992
- nausea and dizziness
- vision / ocular troubles
It was also noted that insomnia would disappear when the power was lower
than usual, and return when the power got back to full level. The children
often could not sleep at all, so often they were sent to grandparents'
or relatives' homes, where they would sleep normally.
Current findings:
Dr Hachulla originally got involved by "chance" in 1994-95.
Working in a big hospital in Lille, he noticed that several patients who
came for blood analysis had very unusual parameters - and they were all
living in Coutiches under the lines. Eventually a thorough follow up study
was financed, on 15 men and 13 women, plus 31 male and 34 female controls
(people also living in Coutiches but farther from the HT lines). There
was repeated blood analysis, myelograms, isotopic explorations (and of
course meausurements of fields levels). The results, despite individual
variations, show clearly that most of the people living under the line
have a "iron pseudo-deficiency". I.e. they have low iron levels
in the blood, but no symptoms of anemia and no decrease of ferritin, which
normally goes with iron deficiency.
Conclusion: "We speculate that EMFs may modify iron metabolism in
populations subjected to 0,2 microTeslas (2 mG) or more, with a high bone
marrow incorporation of the iron (that would explain the low iron level)
and a rapid utilization for the metabolism of hemoglobin, sometimes with
non-incorporation of (39)Fe in the liver."
At the symposium, Dr Hachulla commented that this peculiar syndrome is
unknown in medical records, and that one does not know at this point what
are the consequences on health and whether this effect could be detrimental
or lead to other symptoms linked with EMF. But it is apparently the first
time that an "objective", measurable bio-chemical effect is
clearly and unmistakably shown in people living under HT lines.
In a private conversation, Dr Hachulla also told me that he expects his
results will be severely criticized by EDF-appointed experts... But he
is convinced his data are very robust and will stand the future trials.
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