Comment by sedachv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sedachv | Hacker News Reader

"the disease is not genetic and could be contracted from water, food or air."

New Brunswick is basically a lumber colony for the Irving companies (also, so is Northern Maine, see sprainedankels' comment elsewhere in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26506784). On average 1% of the forest cover of New Brunswick (at least 85% of the province is forest cover) is clear-cut every year, and then the clear cut is drenched in herbicides from the air. The current herbicide is glyphosate, which has been linked to neurological disorders, but aerial spraying of herbicides in other forms dates back to the 1950s.

Here is a linkdump for more information:

http://www.stopsprayingnb.ca/

http://isourforestreallyours.com/Isourforestreallyours/Start...

https://web.archive.org/web/20160322213243/http://dearbriang...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/forests-and-flo...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/louis-lapierre-...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/forestry-deal-r...

This even comes up in the comments section on satire websites:

"Back around 1973 or 1974, I knew of a photographer who had a summer contract with Irving, documenting the effect of spraying. He photographed deformities, poisoned animals, etc. The company was very secretive and made sure that every single roll of film was handed back to them." https://themanatee.net/firing-of-dr-cleary-proves-once-for-a...

https://themanatee.net/new-brunswicks-10-most-beautiful-clea...

The people responsible for the damage causes by the herbicides will be long gone and their decedent's wealth safe before anyone will ever get held responsible.

Chevron (Texaco) killed and poisoned hundreds and when they finally lost in court they went after the laywer which is currently still under illegal house arrest in NY. [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5RZLyLCTo0

Talk about jumping to conclusions.

As a biochemist (no conflict of interest), I honestly don't think there's any reason to think this has anything to do with glyphosate or herbicides.

Environmental exposure in general is unlikely to have a subacute presentation such as in CJD, so that probably rules out exposure to reasonable levels of any herbicide.

Thank you for your expert input. I agree - this is just uninformed speculation on my part. I thought I should point out the unusual circumstances in New Brunswick.

Has glyphosate or pesticides ever been linked to prions?

As far as I can tell only very tangentially. There is this study: https://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/2017/SamselSeneff_Glypho...

And possibly exposure to chronic wasting disease from deer being driven from forests (Irving re-plants clear-cuts with spruce monoculture that provides no food for deer) into proximity to humans:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/deer-st-andrews...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/deer-mobs-bathu...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/n-b-town-overrun-by-deer-consi...

Seneff has dubious credibility on this subject.

Interesting. Will take a look at the links, thanks for the info!

I'm not sure why you're linking all these when the disease has been identified to most likely be a prion disease, and not a side-effect of herbicides.

In terms of chronic exposure of the majority of the population to herbicides, New Brunswick is fairly unique. Why do you think that it is not a plausible hypothesis for "an unknown neurological disease"? If this is a new prion disease from game animals, why has it not shown up in Maine, Québec, or Vermont?

How is it unique?

I used to work for the Ministry of agriculture there and we shared most of our data and procedures with Quebec's.

Are you serious?

Québec land area: 1,365,128 km²

Québec total annual timber harvest: 4.8 million m³

New Brunswick land area: 71,450 km²

New Brunswick timber harvest from Crown lands: 5.4 million m³

New Brunswick timber harvest from private lands: 3 million m³

Québec protected areas alone are more than twice the size of the whole of New Brunswick.

What other populated region in North America is as intensely logged as New Brunswick? Maybe rural Oregon or Washington?

Yeah, but rural PNW is mountainous valleys. Lots of geographic separation from population centers in terms of tree farming areas. If it’s some sort of “runoff” from logging, unless it hits the water table (water tends to come from wells, not lakes/rivers) it’s unlikely to be easily exposed in the populace.

The article we are talking about says specifically that no prion diseases tested for have been found and that readers should not jump to the conclusion that this is a prion disease.

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