Alzheimers in the Air?
Alzheimer’s disease is growing at such an alarming rate in America that there is fear that it may overwhelm our medical system. This is an odd post for an environmental site I know. But I’ve always wondered about Alzheimer’s relative to the environment. I say this because like many families I’ve seen at least one strange phenomenon of this disease that may be related to a polluted environment.
While growing up I had aunts and uncles that were really no blood relation to me. Like many families especially very ethnic families like mine neighbors near by took in children who lost parents early in life and so did my father’s family take in my Uncle Joe in Waltz and the New Boston area. There were others also in a family of 6 already but in a farming family it wasn’t looked at as another mouth to feed as much as another hand to work. As we got older, uncle Joe married my aunt Betty and eventually had my cousin David. And they remained my aunt, uncle, and cousin throughout my life.
While I don’t remember much about visiting their house other than my uncle Joe making David play the accordion for us and my chubby Aunt Betty making the most delicious homemade pastries, my mother remembers hanging out with them a lot as young married couples. My aunt and uncle bought a house in New Boston in the late 50’s that was in the direct path of airplanes taking off from Metro airport. My mom remembers sitting at a table in their backyard many times when a jet would fly overhead. The joke was that the planes were so close they could see the faces of the passengers looking out the windows. Of course the planes weren’t that close, but close enough that a mist of fuel fumes would blanket them. It was so long ago; who knew this might be bad for them. They were young couples, it was a new age with bigger and faster planes coming along, and really quite interesting to watch them so closely. My aunt and uncle continued to live there their entire life.
Flash ahead to the late 80’s. My uncle Joe was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, overcome by it quickly, and soon died from the disease. My aunt followed suite shortly thereafter. I remember visiting her in a nursing home with my mother. She didn’t realize Joe was gone but at least was still speaking. The next visit found her lying in her bed in the fetal position only to pass away shortly thereafter. Two people with different genetics died from Alzheimer’s within 10 years or less of each other.
There is a lot of talk about heredity and Alzheimer’s so this is a strange case. However, I do remember reading recently that military career people who were exposed to a lot of jet fuel fumes throughout their career were also turning up with the disease. There may or may not be a connection, though I do have a pretty good example of the affects of jet fuel in my own yard
Over the past 20 years things have changed in my area. With the expansion of the airport, I’m now in a fly zone. The jets of course are way up in the sky by time they are over my house but nevertheless; I’m definitely in a flight pattern. What I’ve noticed over the years is that I can’t keep the white plastic furniture, like the stuff around pools at resorts, sitting outside in the country no less, unless I turn it over at night. The first set I had turned gray over a few summers, pitted and rough. No amount of cleaner, bleach, scrubbing, acetone, you name it would clean up the chairs. There was a table, chairs, loungers all ruined. I kept wondering what is pitting up the furniture? Whatever it is, it’s landing on us and we’re breathing it. But I could not figure what it was.
I had to get rid of that furniture at a garage sale and only bought a few white, cheap plastic chairs to go around our above ground pool. I made sure I turned that furniture over at night so it wouldn’t pit up. But then an ugly brown stain started to appear on our pool liner that my husband could not scrub off. Our filter system is the type that needs no chemicals if we choose not to use them so our pool is normally crystal clear. The water remained clear while the stain grew. I figured out what the culprit was one evening floating on my back in the pool. I was watching the martins swarm and eat bugs but in the background was one of many jets crossing overhead leaving its huge plume of spent jet fuel behind. Eureka! I found what was causing the stain on the liner, and the pitting of my furniture. As soon as we started covering our pool while not in use, the stain disappeared.
It doesn’t take a genius to put the pieces together in this puzzle. We’re so unaware of pollution we don’t see, but it’s everywhere. If that jet fuel stains everything in my yard and I’m 30 minutes from the airport, and the planes are pretty high up there when passing over my yard, what effect is it having on our lungs, skin, eyes, hair etc.? I don’t like the idea that this is also falling on my “organic” garden, my apple, pear, and cherry trees, grapevines, bushes, and herb garden. Frightening isn’t it? I can’t even try to survive outside the box by growing and preserving my own food supply. Flash back to a married couple in the direct path of spent jet fuel for years both dying of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s even more frightening.