2-butoxyethanol does more than damage the blood

... very possible it will be the central nervous system damage that happens first.  

Sadly, it appears that it doesn't take that much exposure to 

compounds strong in 2-butoxyethanol 

before being health damaged by it.

 

... some more questions based on workers not knowing what's wrong.

 

It's very curious that 

the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome 

are the same as 

those overexposed to the 2-butoxyethanol

... it's in cleaning compounds & no one things anything about it?  

Or it could have been the same component - 2-butoxyethanol - in some 'safe' cleaning compound-

One fish processing plant had its workers come down with asthma... in just 2 days of using an 'approved' cleaning product.  

What cleaning products were supplied to the troops?

Or what ones were 'near' any of the experimental beach cleanup chemicals the 'experts' were using?

 

Ah-ah!

 

..More Questions: 

If volume of blood is down, now some years after major exposure to 2-butoxyethanol

... how can that be determined?

 

Prior blood work, might be more an indication of whether it is only hemolytic anemia, 

wouldn't it? 

 

Since it appears to show up right away...

but if the volume of blood is down,

would it be looking like aplastic anemia 

when it's only the final stages of hemolytic anemia?

 

Would someone with a low volume of blood be more at medical risk 

if he is given blood thinners?

 

Can someone have aplastic anemia 

and hemolytic anemia at the same time? 

 

If so, could the lab tell 

by additionally checking how the red blood cells look under the microscope? 

 

If you don't have enough blood, 

could you collapse & would it look the same as having a heart attack?

 

  Would not having enough blood cause headaches?  ... seizures? 

How do you tell if  you have enough volume of blood? 

Can blood transfusions help?  

If so, for how long are they helpful?

 

Are we seeing more people with tumor of the brain nowadays than in the past?

What are the symptoms of tumor of the brain?

 

 'Mother Margaret'

 

 PDHealth WRAMC-Wash DC <PDHealth@NA.AMEDD.ARMY.MIL> wrote:

I forwarded your questions to our medical staff and received this reply.  I hope it helps.
 
There are more than 200 causes for hemolytic anemia. They can be divided into two main categories.
  1. Hereditary disorders include erythrocyte membrane and enzymatic defects and hemoglobin abnormalities. Some hereditary disorders G-6-PD deficiency, hereditary spherocytosis, and sickle cell anemia.
  2. Acquired hemolytic conditions can be due to immune disorders, toxic chemicals and drugs, physical damage, and infections. They can include autoimmune hemolytic anemia; microangiopathic anemia as found in disseminated intravascular coaguation, hemolytic uremic syndrome or thrombocytic throbocytopenic purpura; and red cell fragementaion by prostheic cardiac valves.

2-butoxyethanol induced hemolytic anemia falls into the acquired hemolytic category, specifically chemical induced, but not autoimmune in nature.  It is thought that it first must be metabolized to 2-butoxyacetic acid before hemolysis occurs.  With removal of the substance through the body's metabolism and elimination pathways, the hemolytic anemia ceases.  Episodes of hemolysis do not by themselves cause a predisposition to aplastic anemia.  But this is not to say that 2-butoxyethanol can by some other physical property as a solvent cause aplastic anemia.  I can not find a reference in the literature that implicates 2-butoxyethanol or 2-butoxyacetic acid as a cause for aplastic anemia.  Whether this has been researched or not, I can not say.  But certainly benzene can cause aplastic anemia.  

More information  on 2-butoxyethanol and 2-butoxyacetic acid, and their health effects, are found through the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts118.html .  For benzene:  http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts3.html  .  Treatment for aplastic anemia can be found at http://www.marrow.org/MEDICAL/aplastic_anemia_advanced.html .

 - DHCC Web Site Question/Comment

Thank you for the above answers from medical doctors at Walter Reid Army Medical Center to these questions:

Is there any cure for hemolytic anemia caused from 2-butoxyethanoll?

Is there any cure for aplastic anemia caused from benzene in crude oil?

All a worker wants is an accurate diagnosis and an effective treatment... but one doctor - very skilled, very prestigious, as I shared, couldn't figure out hemolytic anemia after checking many things... could determine no source for the red blood cell anemia for one of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill cleanup workers.  On the other hand, he didn't know he was treating someone who was an Exxon Valdez Oil Spill cleanup worker. 

Too,  it is said that there are only a couple of labs in our USA who can accurately check for chemicals residual in one's system.  So, doctors who really want to be a help to their patients may want to find a consultant they feel comfortable with....thereby enhancing their effectiveness & help.

www.valdezlink.com/editor.htm
*   * Do you have symptoms of too much chemical exposure?

*

 EVOS Worker?  What job did YOU do?

?

 Military since 1989?  What job did YOU do just before  feeling... exhausted?

*

 Does anyone feel like this?

*   *    *

 Do you have any of these health concerns?

Obviously this is a complex issue,

and needs to be studied;

however, with lymph nodes swollen,

wouldn't that be an indication of

Acquired autoimmune hemolytic anemia with this group?

10-16-03

Chart only

What about high blood sugar (or low)?  Maybe diabetes type 2 is part of what this chemical causes, as a late appearing 'birth defect' OR with sudden onset after flu-like symptoms - after one's own direct exposure to 2-butoxyethanol.  Maybe that is why overweight and Syndrome X (metabolic problems, too?) and kidney failures eventually ... are part of what a chemical exposure does?  Maybe we are dealing with a chemical which is targeting the kidneys directly?

5-24-05