At that meeting members of the community spoke & raised the topic of the higher than average mortality rate of their community & asked if we could help them resolve it. This was not something the Water Project team had encountered in the surrounding communities, & after hearing the heart rending stories of the young people who had died, & whole families who had been wiped out by this cancer, we agreed to work with them to find the cause.
The puzzle was it was only occuring in this community - despite the close proximity to other communities who shared the same water, socio economic situation, food, environment etc, so why was it only happening in Tierra Blanca, & why did it even happen to people from Tierra Blanca when they left the community.
There were many theories - one included a curse, on those who had found ancient graves & sold artefacts in the 50's.
We agreed as a team to take this on.
Many months elapsed with various steps involved:
- There were many visits to Tierra Blanca working with & informing the people of the community.
- Many water tests taken - all showing high levels of Fluoride but although Fluoride has many symptoms the symptoms described by the people, ie sore shoulders & arms, then pain in the lungs, & then death within approx 6 mths, were not symtoms of fluoride poisoning.
- Cedesa & a team of students led by Jesus Gutierrez created an interview protocol & carried out a census.
- With the results of this census a meeting was made with the then Mayor Lucy Nunez & she granted access to Sanitaria Dos officials.
- These officials were not convinced that the death rate was not just a result of a genetic predisposition running in families. They were aware of the deaths but none had been investigated.
- We also reached out to Dr Ortega of UNAM.
- He subsequently met with us in the community, & spoke with the people to gather more information.
- Dr Ortega committed to working on this issue & returned to take water samples there & in surrounding communities, from various sources, wells, springs & the dried up water bed - where locals dig holes & retrieve water from the puddles.
- The test results showed high levels of fluoride & in some cases arsenic but were inconclusive as causes of the cancer killing members of this community.
- Air, & soil tests were also carried out.
I left the team in 2013 & to be honest many of us believed we many never get to the bottom of this.
Fast forward to 2014 & today a very good friend forwarded an article appearing in the local bi-lingual paper. To read this exciting article & discovery please go to the following link:
http://amsanmiguel.com/?p=871
In the spanish version of this article they credit UNAM with discovering the cause of the high mortality rate & the cause is Erionite.
"Erionite is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral that belongs to a group of minerals called zeolites. It usually is found in volcanic ash that has been altered by weathering and ground water."
Carcinogenicity of Erionite
"Erionite is known to be a human carcinogen and is listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Group 1 Carcinogen.[5]The prevalence of malignant pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma due to erionite exposure in the Central Anatolia Region is very high."
In our own Tierra Blanca, it has been reported, there is nothing for them to do but leave their homes - which of course many are unable to do.
So on a high note, the moral of the story would be "don't give up, if something does not seem right it isn't & keep working until you find the cause"
On a low note, finding the cause does not necessarily solve the problem.
Love
Laura
