N.B. report finds herbicides, heavy metals not the cause of 'most' undiagnosed neurological illnesses
CBC
Environmental substances like herbicides and heavy metals are likely not causing the neurological symptoms reported by hundreds of New Brunswickers, an investigation by the province into the so-called mystery brain illness has concluded.
Dr. Yves Léger, the chief medical officer of health, released the final report on the investigation into 222 of the cases of "undiagnosed neurological illness" on Friday.
The investigation was launched last March to further understand concerns raised in 2023 by Moncton neurologist Dr. Alier Marrero about elevated levels of the herbicides glyphosate and glufosinate and several different metals, such as aluminum, arsenic, lead and mercury, in some patients.
"The main findings do not suggest exposure to certain environmental substances was a potential cause of illness among all or even most of the patients studied," Léger said when the report was released at a news conference in Fredericton.
Asked to clarify, Léger said the findings are based on the group of patients as a whole and don't point to any "widespread … exposures" that are "contributing to most patients' illnesses.
"We can't specifically speak to individual patients because we didn't look at individual patient files, we looked at individual [test] results," he told CBC News.
The report does not identify what is making people sick, with symptoms ranging from painful muscle spasms and hallucinations, to memory loss and behavioural changes — a situation that has prompted international headlines and heated debate for years.
But Léger said the latest findings, along with a 2022 report by the previous government on an initial group of 48 patients primarily clustered on the Acadian Peninsula and Moncton area as well as a scientific study published last May in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest patients are likely suffering from an illness that can be diagnosed.
The nine autopsies reviewed pointed to known conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), he said.
"When we embarked on this work, we knew that it would not provide all the answers that patients were looking for. We knew it wouldn’t be end of the work that needed to be done on this file," Léger said.
Sarah Nesbitt, 42, of Canaan Station just north Moncton, is one of Marrero's patients and serves as a co-liaison between patients and the government. She described the report as "double edged."
Many patients are "disheartened," she said. They still don't know what's causing their illness, how to get better or how to prevent others from getting sick.
"They feel it's the same as the first [report in 2022], but at least this time around, they did find, 'some patients that had elevated levels of herbicides and heavy metals,'" she said.
According to Léger, there were "significant limitations" with the data collected by Marrero.
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