One of the earliest warning systems for coal miners was to take
a Canary with them into the mines because they could easily detect the presence
of methane gas. The Canaries would chirp and sing and make noise all day long
until levels of gases would interrupt their ability to breathe or the bird fell
over dead completely. This would serve as a warning to miners that there may be
toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, methane or carbon dioxide, which would
drop the canary dead before the gas effected the miners! If the Canary died,
the miners knew that it was time to get out! Without this bird, the miners wouldn’t
have any clue if the mine had adequate amounts of
oxygen for the miners! Even as gas technology improved, some mining companies used the low cost & very efficient Canary method well into the 20th century!
Today, the practice of using a bird to test the air supply has become part of coal mining lore, but the idealogy behind it has become a popular expression. The phrase "living like a canary in a coal mine" often refers to serving as a warning to others. The actual canary had little control over its fate, but it continued to experience life's dangers without compromise.
In business, Corporation's use this strategy for future growth or reduction. A Large corporation may use a small company to test the waters for a brand new product line, for instance. Even if the company experience modest profits and losses, the large corporation can evaluate the feasibility of the product without risking a large investment. By carefully observing any early indicators, industries can avoid major failures down the road or benefit from a jump on the competition.
(Marlin Perkins Left, Dr. Barry Commoner Middle, Dr. Joel Wallach Right)
In 1962, Dr. Barry Commoner, Prof. Dept. of Biology, Washington
University; and Marlin Perkins (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom), Director of the St, Louis Zoological Gardens
and the Shaw’s Botanical Gardens were looking for a pathologist to head up a
research program funded, in part, by for The Center for the Biology of Natural
Systems. The intention of the study was to determine the effects of pollution
and nutritional deficiencies as contributing factors in the genesis of birth
defects and chronic diseases in captive exotic species held in zoological
collections and humans living in close proximate. In effect the zoological
collections were to be used as modern day “canaries in the coal mine.” What a brilliant idea!
Dr.
Wallach was chosen to fill this position because he was the only person in the
world that had a knowledge base in all three areas of the research’s concern –
agriculture, veterinary science, and comparative pathology. Additionally, while he was pursuing dual degrees in Veterinary medicine and Comparative Pathology.
As head of this project, Dr. Wallach performed more than 20,000 autopsies in animals and humans and review millions of blood chemistries and tissue slides with special stains. His findings were numerous and Wallach published his findings in many peer-reviewed veterinary, medical and pathology journals, as well as now, 9 different multi authored textbooks. One of Dr. Wallach's many noteworthy findings was that coronary heart disease was due to inflammation of the arterial lining rather than elevated blood cholesterol (1971). His opus Maximus, The Diseases of Exotic Animals, (Below, Left) is in the Smithsonian Institute and is recognized as a National Treasure. In 1978, Dr Wallach was the first to indentify and discover Cystic Fibrosis in a monkey where before, Doctor's only recognized Cystic Fibrosis as a genetic human disease.
Interestingly enough, Dr. Wallach was fired in 1978, from his position as a pathologist at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Emory University based out of Atlanta Georgia. This came 10 days after his first wife passed away from having cancer and going through too many chemotherapy treatments. It came 7 months after his discovery and identification of non-human Cystic Fibrosis in a rhesus monkey & one month after an Official news release by Emory University announcing Wallach's confirmed discovery. Wow, are you kidding me?!
Dr Wallach was fired for daring to say that Cystic Fibrosis might not be genetically transmitted in the classical DNA transfer manner but rather appeared to be a congenital deficiency of the trace mineral Selenium in the embryo.
In an interesting twist, a special issue of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research's Journal (Serendipitous Insights Involving Nonhuman primates dated June 2nd, 2011) again confirms Dr. Wallach's findings of Cystic Fibrosis in nonhuman primates was one of the most important findings in primate research in the 20th century. However, in the body of this report, the authors made this interesting remark that, "Emory University refused to release the name of the young pathologist (Wallach) who had originally made the Cystic Fibrosis discovery."
In the 33 years since Wallach;s termination from Yerkes Primate Research Center, Wallach has sued the Food & Drug Administration in Federal courts to get useful but withheld information released to the general public (folic-acid-neural tube defects; selenium and cancer prevention; omega-3 fatty acids and the prevention of thrombosis; antioxidants and the reduce rates of disease; etc.) Dr. Wallach has identified the causes, prevention and cures for numerous birth defects (Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Congenital Deafness; Down Syndrome; Multiple Sclerosis; etc.) asthma, eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, celiac disease, IBS, inflammatory bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Chron's Disease, GERD, ADD, ADHD, autism, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease; all four dimentias; cardiomyopathy; congestive heart failure; coronary artery disease; arterial fibrillation; aneurysms; kidney failure; primary sclerosing cholangitis; sleep apnea; lupus; fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, peripheral neuropathies, degenerative disc disease; obesity; Type 2 diabetes, Metabolic syndrome.
The term "Canary In a Coal Mine", which may seem like just another ordinary folklore to the average miner, actually played a important role in research and discovering how we can actually overcome genetic diseases, elevate society to a much healthier world, a world where diseases are curable & preventable! Now lets go tell the world about this story!
If you have been intrigued about this story and would like to know more, please feel free to visit CampaignForNutrition.com & subscribe to our Newsletter!
.png)
