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Air Today . . . Gone Tomorrow Article
Poisons, Begone! The
Dubious Science Behind the Scientologists' Detoxification Program for 9/11 Rescue Workers
By Amanda Schaffer, Slate, Oct. 21, 2004
In September 2002, the New York Rescue Workers Detox Project began to offer free
"detoxification treatment" to firefighters, police officers, and others exposed
to high levels of toxic debris in the aftermath of the World Trade Center's collapse. The
detox programbased on the teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and detailed
in his book Clear Body, Clear Mindpurports to "flush" poisons from the body's
fat stores using an intensive regimen of jogging, oil ingestion, sauna, and high doses of
vitamins, particularly niacin. Funded largely by private donationsmost notably from
celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise, as has been widely reportedtreatment is provided at
a clinic on Fulton Street in Manhattan as well as at a newer clinic on Long Island.
Roughly 240 rescue workers and 80 downtown residents have undergone the program; most have
paid nothing, although a few non-rescue workers have been asked to contribute $5,000
apiece.
Critics contend that the regimen lacks any scientific basis. But some former participants,
with whom I spoke during a daylong visit to the clinic, believe that the program has
dramatically improved their health and are lobbying local officials, as well as members of
Congress, to support it with public funding. (To date, at least $30,000 in city money has
been allocated; this money appears in the most recent city budget, and an additional
$300,000 from city sources is potentially in the offing, according to Councilwoman
Margarita Lopez. The program has also received $2.3 million in funding from private
donors, including Cruise.) Program advocates, including former patients, staff doctors,
and spokespeople for the clinic, are also reaching out to physicians by setting up
informational meetings in an effort to gain mainstream acceptance.
Is the Hubbard method medically defensible? And if not, how can we explain the compelling
endorsement it receives from many who've undergone it, as well as from a handful of
physicians?
To begin with, let's take a closer look at the regimen itself. The central premiseas
codified by the late L. Ron Hubbard and repeated to me, almost verbatim, by Dr. A. Kwabena
Nyamekye, the associate medical director of the downtown clinicis as follows Toxic
substances (including pollutants, pesticides, and various pharmaceuticals) are stored
largely in the body's fatty tissues. Detoxification is thus made possible by
"mobilizing" fat reservesthat is, by releasing portions of stored fat that
contain dissolved toxinsinto the bloodstream, and then eliminating these toxins, mainly
through sweating. In order to "unleash" fats, participants take increasing doses
of niacin (up to a whopping 3,500 mg to 5,000 mg per day), along with other vitamins and
minerals such as calcium and magnesium. They ingest two daily tablespoonfuls of oil (a
blend of soy, walnut, peanut, safflower, and evening primrose oils) to replace the fats
that have been mobilized and to maintain weight Advocates are clear that weight-loss is
not to occur. Participants also spend a half an hour jogging, followed by two-and-a-half
to five hours in a sauna (while drinking ample water), to eliminate contaminants through
sweat. The program generally runs seven days a week for three to four weeks, or until the
patient no longer "feels the effects of past drugs or chemicals" and reports a
"marked resurgence of overall sense of well-being." That is the model regimen,
at least.
Some favorable articles have been written about this approach by apparently
well-credentialed physicians. However, according to James Dillard, an assistant clinical
professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and clinical director
of Columbia's Rosenthal Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, there is a
"disconnect" between the studies described in many of these articles and the
conclusions presented. The studies themselves typically lack adequate sample sizes,
well-matched control groups, randomization, and other basic elements of experimental
design; Dillard calls them "anecdotal," at best. (And some report particularly
peculiar findings; according to this study, after roughly three weeks of detox, program
participants' IQ scores rose by an average of 6.7 points.)
A number of well-credentialed doctors also sharply criticize the scientific reasoning
offered by Hubbard supporters. (This article focuses on Nyamekye and Hubbard's
interpretation, but for other theories about how the program works, click here.) Consider
first how the regimen purports to mobilize fat reserves. While it is possible to release
stored fat through weight loss, the specific emphasis on weight maintenanceand the daily
spoonfuls of oilmake it unlikely that significant reserves will be broken down. The use
of niacin, too, is open to significant question. Robert Knopp, professor of medicine and
director of the Northwest Lipid Research Clinic at the University of Washington, says that
niacin is often used clinically (in doses of 1,000 mg to 3,000 mg) to lower patients'
blood-lipid levelsthe very opposite of what the Hubbard method seeks to achieve. Dr.
Knopp adds that at doses above 3,000 mg there is a real risk of niacin
toxicityparticularly of liver damage. To prescribe such high doses for any reason is
"totally irrational and dangerous," said Knopp.
Furthermore, the assumption that virtually any toxin can be eliminated effectively through
sweat is also questionable. The dust at Ground Zero contained a wide array of poisons,
including lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, and
asbestos, in addition to pulverized cement and glass. Some doctors do argue that small
quantities of metals, including lead, may be released in sweat. Larger, lipid-soluble
toxins such as PCBs, PAHs, and dioxins, however, are generally not eliminated this way, in
part because sweat is a water-based medium. (It may be possible to detect traces of
fat-soluble toxins in skin oils, though this does not mean that bulk quantities of these
substances are removed by this route.) And certainly asbestos, which lodges in the
delicate tissue of the lungs, cannot be removed by heavy sweating. Indeed, even Keith
Miller, spokesman for the New York Rescue Workers Detox project and a long-time
Scientologist, concedes that the regimen was never meant to address toxins or irritants in
the lungs or to help patients with respiratory problemsthe complaints most prevalent
among former rescue workers.
The fact remains, however, that many participants believe that the program has helped
them. Some who previously needed asthma inhalers say they no longer require them. Others
say they are able to sleep again or have returned to work after long absences. How to make
sense of these positive responses?
Certainly there are elements of the Hubbard methodexercising daily, drinking large
quantities of water, cutting out alcohol and drugsthat would promote health. But a
psychological argument, rather than a physiological one, may best explain the program's
successes. There is strong resonance between the Hubbard method and other rituals of
purification found in so many cultural and religious traditions, in which cleansing of the
body allows for mental and spiritual renewal. There are also clear parallels between
Hubbard's language and that of psychotherapy During detox, patients are said to experience
"manifestations" of old traumas or toxins; they taste or smell long-forgotten
chemicals or drugs; they re-experience symptoms, allergies, and wounds that "turn
off" again when toxins are "flushed" from the body. Hubbard himself was
notoriously hostile to psychiatry; but what his method seems to offer is a potent
physiological analogue to talk therapy. (It's worth noting that at high doses niacin can
cause dilation of peripheral blood vessels, redness, and skin irritation, so patients may
experience at least some "manifestations" for this reason.)
As William Michael Moore, a master sergeant with the New York Air National Guard who
worked in rescue and recovery at Ground Zero and underwent the detox program in May 2004,
told me, the Hubbard method wasn't designed to "hide the symptoms" (as other
treatments, such as asthma inhalers, do). Instead, it allowed him to "know the full
thing"to experience his symptoms completely, and then begin to heal.
Some participants also said they were helpedand greatly relievedby the program's
forthrightness about environmental toxins. Several told me that staff members validated
their concerns about Ground Zero exposure in a way that most public discourse (at least
until very recently) did not. Indeed, advocates for the Hubbard method often dwell on
government's sluggish response to environmental disasterits propensity for "denial,
damage control
[and] guarded disclosures of information"and cast themselves
as a frank alternative, in which public health is paramount and information on toxins is
made easily available. This streak of activism reflects a humanitarian impulse in the
Scientology detox campaign, however dubious the science behind it.
Amanda Schaffer is a science writer living in Brooklyn, New York.
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