It is with great sadness that we record the death of Mark Purdey, the Somerset organic farmer who exposed the causal link between organophosphorus chemicals and BSE. Mark passed away after suffering with a brain tumour.
He was a remarkable man with the rare distinction of having taken on the powerful agencies of Government in their own courts and winning, an action forced on him when he refused to comply with the order making the use of OP treatments on his cattle compulsory.
Strangely despite that compulsory order, and the fact that Mark appears to have been the only farmer to challenge that rule in court, officials of government gave evidence to the BSE Inquiry in which they stated that not all farms with BSE in their herds had used OPs, also carefully forgetting the OPs used to treat grain in their feeds.

In recent years Mark has also researched the combined effects of copper, manganese and electro-magnetic radiation in the complex BSE story. See Mark's work on the web here

Mark passed away on the 12th November 2006 at 52 years of age leaving his wife and eight children. He will be greatly missed.

Sadly his passing was seen as an opportunity by some science journalists to attack him and his work in national papers, a problem he faced from the moment that he raised concerns about the use of OPs in agriculture. His story exemplifies how those who seek the truth are often attacked both physically and mentally by powerful people with a financial interest in suppressing uncomfortable facts. Both Mark's veterinary surgeon and his solicitor reportedly met with mysterious deaths, his extensive library was destroyed, his telephone lines were cut at crucial times, and determined efforts have been made to undermine his credibility in the press and elsewhere.

Mark was equally determined however and his work was recognised by those who understood the issues and knew that scientific experimentation by recognised laboratories had confirmed what he reported.

The loss of people like Mark is a sad blow to those who seek the truth around the world but more so to his family to whom we send our heartfelt sympathy at this difficult time. Messages of condolence and tributes that can be read on this web site may be sent by e-Mail to info@equofax.com - Jane Barribal - Ed. Equofax

Despite the attacks on Mark in certain sections of the press since his death he still has great support.
The following article was written recently by Joanna Wheatley who is also an organic farmer who chose that path following her experiences as a research scientist working on organophosphorus chemicals for a multi-national company. Joanna worked with Mark in the early days of his battle with the authorities and was able to give him the benefit of her knowledge of OPs.

Mark Purdey was right!

CJD is recorded to be transferred by pituitary extracted hormones. The medical world has long been fascinated with the properties of the pituitary, which regulates and produces hormones. It has been thought to contain the elixir of life, warding off ageing and promoting strength, speed and energy, this is why it is one of the banned substances for competitive sports. In females it also controls fertility hormones.

Some of the recorded examples;

1985 Four UK children were identified with CJD who had received injections of somatotrophin [growth hormone] derived from cadaveric human pituitaries. Injection programmes were stopped in most countries but not in France which stopped in 1989 after 11 cases, by 1996 France had half the world's recorded cases of pituitary hormone related CJD.

1989 The first lady to die of CJD who had received Follicle Stimulating Hormone [FSH] also sourced from human pituitaries died in Australia. The hormone had been prepared in the US, who had shredded its records of a 15 year infertility program.

1991 Confirmed, children from New Zealand and Brazil with CJD contracted from human somatotrophin growth hormone injections.

1993 UK headlines reported that the daughter of a lady who had died in 1975 from CJD cannot obtain records regarding her mothers treatment for infertility in the 1960s. According to medical literature 300 infertile British women received FSH pituitary extract.

The cattle situation

In cows in the early 1980s pituitary extracted bovine fertility hormones were licensed to be injected into bovines, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs and cats. They were also used in techniques to improve numbers of rare breeds.

1970s-80s Experimental examination of growth/milk yield and fertility enhancement of cattle using the hormone bovine somatotrophin [BST], derived from pituitary extracts from other cattle, the development of which was not continued.

1980s cattle embryo transfer and IVF work using cattle and/or sheep or pig cadaveric pituitary extracted hormones was developed and used. These cattle would have been disposed of through the abattoirs and knacker's yards and hence into the pharmaceutical chain.

1987 BSE, official announcement of presence in British herds

1988 Agricultural Food Research Council [AFRC] at Reading announce cheese to be tasted at Dairy farming event made from cows treated with Bovine Somatotrophin [BST] obtained from cadaveric pituitaries of other cows. The abattoir used to obtain the pituitaries was also the place where experimental cows were sent at the end of the experiment, or their useful lives. The opportunity to recycle any encephalopathy that had been triggered by treatment was present. Furthermore it was not just pituitaries this abattoir was supplying but all manner of materials to both doctors and vets. They sold all the pancreases for insulin production and supplied pituitaries to doctors. If BSE crosses to humans then surely these recipients would be getting it. They also supplied the Central Veterinary Laboratory [CVL] with black and white cow heads every fortnight. What for? Was it to make the TB reactor vaccine, which is injected into every cow in the land in our compulsory TB testing regime? In this regime the vet comes with a preloaded syringe supplied by CVL. He may go to one farm to another going through all the cows with the same syringe, so one must presume that TSEs can't be transferred from one cow to another by contaminated needles, otherwise whole herds would have got BSE.

Synergistic effects

Organophosphates [OPs] were coming on to the market for ever-increasing number of treatments.
Worming. These new compounds were a miracle. With just one treatment you could rid your animal of all internal and external parasites and the treatment lasted for weeks.
Fly ear tags. A pre-treated strip that you could hang from your cow's ear for 24 hr lasting weeks control.
Residues in feed. Newly on the market was an OP powder to dust grain to kill weevils or wildlife that might be contaminating its perceived purity. If your grain wasn't treated the merchants would not take it.

The EU had a grain mountain at the time, the grain stored was treated regularly, when they came to use it OP residues were so high it was deemed unfit for human consumption. Which means it automatically went into feed.

Apart from the revolutionary translocation/mobility properties of OPs there was also the bonus the fact they were readily broken down in living organisms. However it is in their breakdown that the danger lies. Oxygen and phosphorus are naturally occurring energy molecules when they are bonded together they are used for oxidative phosphorilation, naturally occurring OPs obtained through food. So residues in food laced with OPs will be readily utilised.

Oxidative phosphorilation is used on the cell membrane surface for transcription and receiving messages like immune response and hormone reception, even the way molecules pass through the membrane is reliant on this energy form.
When you enter the cell the powerhouse of the cell, the mitochondria, is driven by phosphorilation the RNA transcription and even DNA transcription within the nucleus is fuelled by methylated phosphorilation. The OP grain treatment is methylated.

OPs are well-documented neurotoxins and cited as causing lesions in neuro tissues.
In context of CJD and other transmissible encepholpathies Hormones, i.e. protein strings, if transferred between living organisms of the same species, can cause a TSE. Generally, crossing species eliminates problems because it is so different and it is automatically recognised as being foreign, but when it is within species, then the differences are so subtle that at first the receiving body accepts and uses the protein. Any rejection response would be at a sub-cellular level and therefore effects would take a time to be noticed.
How does this occur?
A foreign hormone enters the body by injection or maybe ingestion, though most proteins are broken down by gastric juices. Once circulating a receptive membrane will pick it up, and pass it into the cell for utilising. In the process of utilisation it is discovered to be rogue, and an attempt is made to destroy it, and pass on information to that effect to other cells, to look out for and destroy other rogue proteins. Except these are so close to the naturally occurring one that these are mistakenly destroyed, thus creating an auto-immune response.

Other recorded effects of Organophosphates on health

A recently published book Organophosphates and Health editors Lashman Karalliedde, Stanley Feldman, John Henry and Timothy Marrs - Imperial College Press, ISBN 1860942709 - contains chapters on effects such as Carcinogenicity and mutagenicity. The test for mutagenicity for these compounds is carried out on E. coli and S. typhimurium and although positive the chemicals are still in use. Is it any wonder that new strains or E. coli keep appearing?
Evidence of Cardiovascular, Neuromuscular junction and muscle, Neuropsychiatric, and psychological functioning, delayed polyneuropathy and the latest research can be viewed at http://ops.csl.gov.uk
if you tap in hormones you will see that it effects levels of adrenal hormones and fertility hormones.
So we complete the circle.
OPs cause infertility. Infertility is treated with IVF - a hormone injection dependant procedure.

Mark Purdey was right!

   Dated 22/11/2006.

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