The Texas Department of Health is asking the public for help in determining how radioactive wires possibly used in treating skin cancer 20 years ago (around 1979-1980) ended up in a bar ditch along state Highway 59 near Kendleton, southwest of Houston.

Two half-inch long needle-like wires containing radium-226 were found in dirt removed from the highway ditch by the Texas Department of Transportation. The wires were discovered by TDH officials after sensors at a landfill where the dirt was taken detected radiation.

Officials said the danger to the public was minimal given the relatively remote location and the low level of radiation from the sources. However, officials admitted they had been unable to determine how the wires got to the ditch or if the two wires were part of a larger quantity of discarded wires or other radioactive medical waste.

It is my understanding that wires of this type were used 20 years ago in medical devices used by dermatologists to treat skin cancer.

This discovery was brought to my attention by Becky Miller of Fox News in Dallas, Texas. We have been working together on a follow-up to the Cash-Landrum UFO case that occurred on December 29, 1980.

I would like to hear from any of MUFON Consultants having further information or knowledge about these devices.

From: National UFO Reporting Center Case Brief

"Early Friday morning, March 12, 1999, Art Bell, host of the late night radio program, Coast to Coast, reported on his program having just received a fax from an individual who identified himself as a crew member of a commercial airliner. In his message, the unidentified individual asserted that both he and another member of the cockpit crew had experienced a burning sensation of the skin on their faces shortly after having witnessed a peculiar green light in proximity to their aircraft at approximately 2100 hours (CST) on Thursday night, March 11, 1999. At the time of the incident, the aircraft was in the northern mid-western United States."

"On Saturday morning, March 13, The National UFO Reporting Center received a written report, apparently from the same individual, which details the events of the alleged incident. A summary of that report follows:

"The individual described in his report the fact that both crew members of the airliner had been witnessing an "intense" display of the Northern Lights as they were descending for landing at a major metropolitan airport in the northern mid-western United States. The person adds that he had witnessed the Northern Lights on many occasions during his 10+ years of flying, so he was not paying a great deal of attention to the display. However, he comments that the display on the night of March 11 was of such intensity that it appeared to "stretch above and over the aircraft," and that the dramatic colors of the display – green, red, and blue – were reflected off the metallic surface of the aircraft."

"The crew member then describes how both he and the other member of the cockpit crew were witness to a short-lived "pulse of green light," which appeared to be "concentrated in a green ball," and which approached their aircraft from the north, apparently at a very rapid velocity."

"Immediately following the event, all members of the cockpit crew began to experience a sensation on their faces, as if they had been "burnt by the sun." They reported the sensation to each other, at which point the crew immediately requested clearance to divert to a different altitude."

"After the aircraft passed through a thin layer of overcast, the sensation of burning that the crew members had experienced seemed to them to disappear immediately. However, on the next day, the author of the report noticed that the skin on his face was "red and sore." The individual reports that he has made arrangements to see a physician about the skin condition. Also, he requested assistance in investigating the case."

"The alleged incident occurred approximately 1-2 hours prior to a number of seemingly credible, and rather dramatic, UFO sighting reports were received from the states of Illinois and Ohio."

From: Tony Craddock, CSETI Webmaster, http://www.cseti.org, June 10, 1999

A portion of the CSETI report is given as follows:

"Dear Doctor and your associates. My 32-year old son Demian went camping this last weekend in the Los Padres forest above Los Angeles. At bedtime, he walked down to the river, away from his tent where his friend was. There were no public camping sites in this area. He had found a secluded wood on his own on prior visits. He had a big, police-sized flashlight in hand because he was well away from the tenting area. Demian looked up at the stars, saw and then watched what he thought was a satellite coming from the east, toward the middle of the sky, but going VERY fast, he said that it would have taken this ‘star’ 11 seconds to cross the entire sky from horizon to horizon. He noted it was making little 90 degree jogs and then it would go straight, then another 90 degree jog. He thought it was very high (18-20 miles) and it moved so fast, that to him that height and speed meant it was going 20,000 miles an hour or something like our NASA space rockets."

"Because he is very quick, and a kind of a clown, he flashed his big, huge VERY brilliant flashlight up at it, turned it on, off, on, off, and on, off and suddenly as he looked up at it, HIS EYES WERE BURNED WITH A FLASH OF LIGHT like a STADIUM light or a photographer’s flash bulb and he brought his head down, and noted that a LIGHT was shining DOWN from above, on HIM in a circle exactly centered on him. He looked to the side and he was surrounded with this circle of such hot light ten to sixteen feet in diameter, no wider than that. He said the adrenaline rush was amazing…. This was last Saturday night or Sunday the 6^th, ten to midnight…. I forgot to ask him the exact hour."

The message was signed by Anita Sands Hernandez, giving her permission to post the report.

Katharina Wilson (kwilson@alienjigsaw.com) contacted me seeking information on the number of abductees that have tested HIV positive. She is supporting Philip S. Duke, Ph.D. on an inquiry about a possible AIDS – ET connection. Anyone having information related to this study should contact Katharina directly. No names should be given. This in not a MUFON project.

The MUFON e-mail service brought an inquiry from a concerned mother of a 13-year old boy. She said that during the summer of 1998 he saw a bright light outside his window at night. He was convinced it was not the moon, stars or an airplane. Soon afterwards a skin condition showed up on his back. The first time was on August 19, 1998. It appeared again the second week of September and again on November 22, 1998. It faded after 10-12 days.

She said the condition was not like a raised rash. Instead it was more like a petichiae, as when tiny blood vessels have ruptured through the skin. The pattern resembled perfect formations of "hickeys" the size of a pencil eraser. They were in rows, the same distance apart. There were no other signs. He was totally unaware the condition was there. There was no pus, no inflammation, and no allergies. The pattern was the same each time it appeared, but less intense each time.

She is concerned there is a UFO relationship to the appearance of the marks. She said she has experience working in wound and skin isolation and has never seen anything like this. She will continue to monitor her son for return of the condition.

Suggestions from the MUFON medical committee consultants would be welcome.

From: Science News, Vol. 155, January 30, 1999, p. 70

"Men who worked in the presence of high electromagnetic fields (EMFs) were up to three times as likely to die from heart attacks and several other cardiovascular conditions as were their colleagues who had far smaller EMF exposures, a new study finds."

"The observations emerge from a re-analysis of information collected during a 38-year study of almost 140,000 electric utility workers."

"EMFs are invisible lines of force that surround all electric devices and wiring. Their strength increases with the current running through the devices or wires. Though high EMFs, especially their magnetic components, can promote the growth of cancers in laboratory animals and some evidence links them to cancers in people, little attention had been paid to whether they might affect the heart."

For further information, please see the full article in Science News.

UFO researchers have claimed that various types of fields have caused both short term and long-term injuries to witnesses. Usually, the claim is debunked by generalized statements that there is no proof the fields have detrimental effects on humans. Unfortunately, it appears we have a long way to go to pin down the culprits in such cases.

From: The Denver Post, January 31, 1999, p. 16a

"Biologists analyzing human genetic data in the DNA data banks have given fresh meaning to the saying that no one is perfect. Harmful mutations have accumulated so fast in the human genome, according to a new study, that the immediate question is why the human species has not become extinct."

"Although human populations are doing fine, common minor afflictions such as weakened eyesight, headaches, and stomach upsets could reflect this inherited baggage of adverse mutations. And some biologists fear that as the bite of natural selection is relaxed by medical advances, the mutational baggage could become more significant in the centuries ahead."

"The effective mutation rate in the human genome is estimated in the new study as being at least 4.2 mutations per generation, of which 1.6 mutations are harmful. This is a high number considering that a harmful mutation can be eliminated sooner or later only by the "genetic death" of its carrier."

"The high retention of adverse mutations probably reflects the fact that human populations have been extremely small throughout their evolutionary history. In small populations it is easier for a mutation to become fixed."

We have been told by a number of abductees and had it suggested by others that the aliens are here because their race is dying from mutational baggage and they need what they find on earth to survive. Could there be some basis in fact for this? Is there a mutation vs. small population of alien genome?

From: Biophotonics International, May/June 1999, p.60

"UV light damages DNA by kinking it, and as cells repair the lesions and then replicate the DNA, mutations occur. But according to Virginia Walbot, professor of biological sciences at Stanford University in California, UV may also harm DNA through transposons. These are pieces of DNA that jump in and out of chromosomes under direction of an enzyme call transposase, causing mutations where they land. Transposons are important – they help drive evolution by introducing genetic change and, in some species, account for a significant portion of DNA. In corn, active transposons and their silent relics account for at least 70 percent of the genome."

From: Sightings, June 15, 1999

"Researchers in Toronto have found an association between childhood leukemia and high magnetic-field levels from sources such as power lines. The study compared 201 children with leukemia with 406 children without cancer. The children exposed most to magnetic fields in residences were two to four times more likely to have leukemia. Children under age six were especially at risk."

"But lead researcher Dr. Lois Green said the five-year study doesn’t mean magnetic fields cause cancer. Leukemia attacks blood cells and is the most common childhood cancer. The study is among many attempting to clarify the relationship between electromagnetic fields and cancer risk. The team’s findings were released in the International Journal of Cancer and the Journal of Cancer Causes and Control.

From: Houston Chronicle, June 17, 1995, p. 17A

"Federal officials discussed "body snatching" in the mid-1950s to obtain the human tissue needed to study effects of radiation caused by fallout. During a secret Biophysics Conference convened in Washington January 18, 1955, Dr. Willard Libby, then a commissioner with the Atomic Energy Commission, reported that human samples for testing purposes had been reduced "to essentially zero level" since the supply of "still-borns as material" had been "cut off."

"So human samples are of prime importance and if anybody knows how to do a good job of body snatching, they will be serving their country," Libby told the group. "I don’t know how to snatch bodies," Libby said. "We hired an expensive law firm to look up the law of body snatching – It’s not very encouraging. It shows how very difficult it is going to be to do legally."

"The Libby discussion was part of the federal government’s human tissue experiments – 59 in all – initiated during the 1940s to determine the effects of radiation on exposed individuals. More than 15,000 subjects were involved and nearly 9,000 bone samples were used "in an effort to determine the accumulation of this radioactive element in humans as a result of nuclear fallout."

"Some of the other experiments apparently were more onerous…. During that same conference attended by Libby, Dr. J. Laurence Kulp of Columbia University revealed that "channels" were being developed to obtain human tissue."

"Down in Houston they don’t have all these rules," Kulp said. "They claim that they can get virtually and they intend to get virtually every death in the age range we are interested in that occurred in the city of Houston. They have a lot of poverty cases and so on."

Given this brief exposure of the dirty tricks that went on in the 40s and 50s "for the good of the country," is it any wonder that no one believes the denials on Roswell and other sightings of that era?