We’re talking the end of the freaking world here! This isn’t some bureaucratic crap. Are people so not used to dealing with serious threats that they’ve gone blind to them?” The General put his arm around Ray, and tried to calm him down. Ray pushed him aside and headed towards the door. “I’m not going to stand for this. I won’t stand around and let the whole world end just to have a freaking gold star on my personnel file. Screw my personnel file.” Ray left the office.
The General wasn’t going to let Ray’s behavior bother him. He was a company man. He had made his rank by maintaining a cool head and following orders. He had taken some management courses. He knew that primadonnas like Ray often get frustrated by the bureaucratic nonsense that goes on in today’s government. It was best to let them blow off a little steam. Then everything will be ok. The presentation to the NSC would look great on the General’s file when he came up for promotion. He couldn’t see anything bad that happened today. He calmly walked down the hall, stopping only to pick up a signed picture from the secretary and a handful of candy from the jar on her desk.
Excerpt from an Editorial in the Sacramento Bee, Health Section, page H4. Three days before Ray met with the NSC.
“Is HS the Latest ‘Environmental’ Disease?”
by Dr. Alan Franks, health editor
The latest statistics released from the NIH this Thursday paint a stark picture of our nation’s newest epidemic. The number of Handel’s Syndrome children has been increasing at an alarming rate. In the last year, the number of cases has increased almost ten-fold. The figures for prior years are even more disturbing. There wasn’t even a name for the disease up until about two years ago, and epidemiologists have yet to uncover a confirmed case of HS dating back more than five years. You’re probably not even familiar with the symptoms; deformed features, stunted growth, enlarged eyes. What’s more alarming is that NIH is still unable to identify a cause for this disease. Despite rumors on the internet, HS is genetic in nature (HS children are born with an extra chromosome), it is doubtful that some sort of germ or virus is the culprit. However, since it only appeared recently, it cannot be considered akin to Hodgkin’s or Diabetes or any of the traditional genetic diseases that have been around since time immemorial. It is more likely caused by some new mutating agent. But what sort of agent could do this? With the Thalidomide scare of the 1970s, the symptoms showed only in patients whose parents had ingested the drug. But HS doesn’t seem to have any sort of epidemiological consistency. Physicians worldwide have reported cases. There doesn’t seem to be a focal point or any feature that links the patients. They come from rich and poor backgrounds, warm and cold climates, their parents have varied access to drugs, foods, and industrial chemicals.
One answer may be that the chemical causing the mutation has become ubiquitous, much in the same way that DDT is. DDT was banned from most industrialized countries decades ago, but detectable levels are still found in the livers of polar bears, who certainly have no recent direct exposure. It is possible that some chemical we have been taking for granted all these years has actually been building up in the food chain, and has finally reached levels where its mutagenic effects can be seen.
One good guess at the mutagen is the class of chemicals known as ‘environmental estrogens.’ These industrial by-products are chemically similar to estrogen, and they are rumored to have effects on the human metabolism. They are thought to be primarily responsible for the alarming decrease in human male sperm production that has been recorded over the past few decades. It is also possible that these chemicals are responsible for the mutated frogs that are being found in lakes all over the country. Due to their thin, porous
The General wasn’t going to let Ray’s behavior bother him. He was a company man. He had made his rank by maintaining a cool head and following orders. He had taken some management courses. He knew that primadonnas like Ray often get frustrated by the bureaucratic nonsense that goes on in today’s government. It was best to let them blow off a little steam. Then everything will be ok. The presentation to the NSC would look great on the General’s file when he came up for promotion. He couldn’t see anything bad that happened today. He calmly walked down the hall, stopping only to pick up a signed picture from the secretary and a handful of candy from the jar on her desk.
Excerpt from an Editorial in the Sacramento Bee, Health Section, page H4. Three days before Ray met with the NSC.
“Is HS the Latest ‘Environmental’ Disease?”
by Dr. Alan Franks, health editor
The latest statistics released from the NIH this Thursday paint a stark picture of our nation’s newest epidemic. The number of Handel’s Syndrome children has been increasing at an alarming rate. In the last year, the number of cases has increased almost ten-fold. The figures for prior years are even more disturbing. There wasn’t even a name for the disease up until about two years ago, and epidemiologists have yet to uncover a confirmed case of HS dating back more than five years. You’re probably not even familiar with the symptoms; deformed features, stunted growth, enlarged eyes. What’s more alarming is that NIH is still unable to identify a cause for this disease. Despite rumors on the internet, HS is genetic in nature (HS children are born with an extra chromosome), it is doubtful that some sort of germ or virus is the culprit. However, since it only appeared recently, it cannot be considered akin to Hodgkin’s or Diabetes or any of the traditional genetic diseases that have been around since time immemorial. It is more likely caused by some new mutating agent. But what sort of agent could do this? With the Thalidomide scare of the 1970s, the symptoms showed only in patients whose parents had ingested the drug. But HS doesn’t seem to have any sort of epidemiological consistency. Physicians worldwide have reported cases. There doesn’t seem to be a focal point or any feature that links the patients. They come from rich and poor backgrounds, warm and cold climates, their parents have varied access to drugs, foods, and industrial chemicals.
One answer may be that the chemical causing the mutation has become ubiquitous, much in the same way that DDT is. DDT was banned from most industrialized countries decades ago, but detectable levels are still found in the livers of polar bears, who certainly have no recent direct exposure. It is possible that some chemical we have been taking for granted all these years has actually been building up in the food chain, and has finally reached levels where its mutagenic effects can be seen.
One good guess at the mutagen is the class of chemicals known as ‘environmental estrogens.’ These industrial by-products are chemically similar to estrogen, and they are rumored to have effects on the human metabolism. They are thought to be primarily responsible for the alarming decrease in human male sperm production that has been recorded over the past few decades. It is also possible that these chemicals are responsible for the mutated frogs that are being found in lakes all over the country. Due to their thin, porous
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