Does Benzene Poisoning Cause Scrapie?

Dear Sir,

In the last five years there have been 424 cases of Scrapie in Scotland and 350 of these were in Shetland.

The only unique factor I can come up with for Shetland is benzene from the petrochemical industry. Crude Oil is worth a lot more on the international market if the benzene content is low and my suspicion is benzene is being vented from tankers off Shetland.

The same procedure would account for the high incidence of Scrapie in Southern Norway.

Throughout the UK vCJD and CJD are distributed in urban areas and along motorways. Until very recently road tankers returning empty to the depot routinely vented residual vapours while travelling along motorways. The mechanism is activated by a red foot pedal in the driver's cab.

The hazard of handling benzene was one of the grievances addressed in the tanker drivers' dispute in 2000. High levels of this dangerous hydrocarbon, particularly in super-unleaded, were causing sickness to tanker drivers and also corrosion to aluminium couplings on tanker pipes.

It is interesting to note that benzene is totally banned from road fuel in the USA and the level tolerated in the rest of Europe is much lower than in the UK.

At the beginning of December last year my concerns about benzene poisoning were passed to Margaret Beckett and I am currently awaiting a reply.

Bill.