Over the past 28 years I have provided sampling kits and analytical testing for heptachlor / chlordane in indoor air of approximately 1000 homes throughout the United States. During this time hundreds of homeowners shared their health problems. These conversations have illuminated the link between exposure to these banned cyclodiene insecticides and various illnesses of the nervous and the immune systems. The symptoms and the severity of the diseases are correlated with the level and duration of the exposures. The most consistent neurological symptom/disease suffered by these exposed homeowners, starting at moderate levels of heptachlor / chlordane in their indoor air, is anxiety (with depression found at higher concentrations and/or longer exposures).
(See link below for chlordane and heptachlor levels in indoor air of American homes) http://toxfree.net/chlordane/Cassidy/levels_graph.php. For comparison, see how these concentrations compare with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Minimal Risk Levels (MRL) for chlordane. http://toxfree.net/chlordane/Cassidy/risks_graph.php.
Of the hundreds of conversations I have had with chlordane – exposed persons, one stands out most vividly. This was a conversation with a man who told me of his memories as a boy of his home being treated for termites with technical chlordane. The home was built by his ancestor, a large upscale house built in a small town in Tennessee, and has since fallen on hard times like so many other towns throughout Mid-America.
He also recalled subsequent memories as a child, hiding behind trees and shrubs to reduce anxiety produced from oncoming headlights of cars. As we spoke it was clear that he was an intelligent man but was afraid of the outside world. His only means of maintaining this large deteriorating house was running a small home business dealing with computers. The air sample he provided from his home, decades after treatment, was still 80 times above the Minimal Risk Level (MRL) established by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). (see risks graph above).
In an epidemiological study (Ref. 1) of occupants of a very large wooden apartment complex in Houston, known to be contaminated with high to moderate levels of chlordane / heptachlor, occupants had twice the anxiety as persons living in uncontaminated dwellings.
Heptachlor and chlordane produces anxiety by causing neurons in the brain to be more excitable. Both chlordane / heptachlor (Ref. 2-4) and benzodiazepines binds to different receptors on the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) complex in mammalian brains. Heptachlor and chlordane have the opposite effect as benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines, the second most prescribed class of neuroactive drugs in the U.S., produces anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effects. Most Americans have used or have heard of the most popular benzodiazepines: Xanax, Klonopin, Ativan, and Valium.
Technical chlordane was used to treat homes for termites in the U.S. beginning the early 1950s. Librium, the first benzodiazepine, was prescribed in 1957 followed by Valium in 1963. Sales of other benzodiazepines skyrocketed in the 1970s and 80s corresponding to the exposure of Americans to indoor air concentrations of heptachlor and chlordane in their homes. USEPA estimated that at the time heptachlor and chlordane were banned in 1988, 30-35 million homes had been treated with technical chlordane.
As I wrote this blog I started to wonder what happen to this tormented client. I was shocked to read (on the internet) today that he committed suicide leaving his mother alone in their forlorn home.
Break free from anxiety by testing the air in your home (www.toxfree.net).
See Video on How To Take Air Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_scuCl3I0w.
REFERENCES
1. Kilburn, K. H. and Thornton, J. C. (1995). .Protracted neurotoxicity from chlordanesprayed to kill termites. Environ. Health Perspect. 103:690-4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1522193/pdf/envhper00356-0059.pdf
2. Cassidy RA, Voorhees CV, Minema DJ, Hasting L (1994). The effects of chlordane exposure during pre- and postnatal periods at environmentally relevant levels on sex steroid-mediated behaviors and functions in the rat. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 126:326-37. http://toxfree.net/chlordane/Cassidy/cassidypdf/TAP.pdf
3. Gant DB, Eldefrawi ME, Eldefrawi AT. (1987) Cyclodiene insecticides inhibit GABAA receptor-regulated chloride transport. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 88:313-21. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3033845.
4. Bloomquist JR, Adams PM, Soderlund DM (1986) Inhibition of gamma-aminobutyric acid-stimulated chloride flux in mouse brain vesicles by polychlorocycloalkane and pyrethroid insecticides. Neurotoxicology. 7:11-20
I only hope that all of your research information continues to reach people to raise awareness of the many autoimmune diseases and the potential causes that have been discovered. As a past Parkinson’s patient, I continue to try and not be in contact or consume hazardous chemicals. This information and test packs should be sent to all schools and sent home with children for testing of their homes. These diseases need to be studied for a cause, not just continued research of new drugs that are causing more harm to our bodies. Keep up the goid work Dr Cassidy!!!! You will make a difference!