Oxford-on-Sea! That’s what some predict by 2100, if the globe warms up by another four degrees ºC. The City of Dreaming Spires will be sitting on one of many coastlines in a UK reduced to an archipelago of tiny islands. Still, I doubt that I shall be around to find out, but meanwhile recent heavy rain has rendered driving here a ‘boating’ experience. Water laps at every curb, making me think that Churchill-in-the-Puddles might not be so far distant!

Fortunately, the waves parted sufficiently to enable all to make Lotte’s Cold Mix Course last weekend. As Jan was off to Crufts to meet some of young Mick’s relatives, I was deputed to open up the office. What a delight! All were in splendid spirits, undoubtedly buoyed by the unseasonably fine weather. I discovered that many dislike supermarket shopping as much as me! Several wondered if my departure had had any effect upon the business. Not one jot, as I have had my succession and a splendid team in place for several years. What a lucky fellow!

Places for a day soapmaking with Melinda Coss were quickly snapped up, which did not entirely surprise me but seemed to faze Melinda a little. All the same, she has agreed to do another day!

Soapmaking with Melinda Coss
Saturday, 2nd June, 2007
at Essentially Oils from 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

However I was rather surprised when she told us that she would not be driving from the airport, as she preferred to take the train because she no longer felt comfortable driving on ‘the other side of the road’. As one who drives regularly around Britain and Europe, in both left-hand drive and right-hand drive cars, I had never really given the issue a second thought. But, come to think of it, many of my French friends, all accomplished motorists, are reluctant to drive in UK. Similarly, I have several British car club colleagues who consider driving in France motoring mayhem. Why?

Here in Britain we are often content to maintain position in a slow-moving queue of traffic, the other drivers seeming to believe that being overtaken is personal insult. The French, on the other hand, like to drive at a decent speed, and regard overtaking as a normal procedure. However, they do have an unfortunate habit of cutting their safety margin to the minimum, but when doing so other drivers show a level of co-operation which is unheard of in the UK.

The French casualty rate is roughly double that of the UK, which is not to suggest that the British are better drivers - quite the reverse - but the French drive faster, thus increasing the severity of their mistakes. Even so, they kill half the number of pedestrians that we do in the UK, although some years ago half of these deaths took place on pedestrian crossings!

Some estimates claim that three million French drivers have never taken a test, the penalty for which can include a £10,000 fine and a year in gaol. Still, when discovered, the miscreant is given a choice of facing the law, or learning to drive properly, the fees being paid by the state.

Another dubious activity is the strong drink and driving culture, particularly amongst older drivers, which remains alive in spite of severe penalties for a level of alcohol which would not result in prosecution in the UK. It is quite common to see drivers, including the police, enjoying a glass of wine during their morning break, while some truck drivers, fresh from their 44 tonne camion, will often consume a litre of red wine with their lunch!

In spite of all, driving amongst the French is probably safer because of their preoccupation with overtaking - this means that they are paying attention to the traffic conditions, rather than using a mobile phone, or checking that their satellite navigation system is telling them where they know they already are!

The French government seems to have a refreshing attitude that cars are a social necessity, not an evil. Although the government does not have a large income from motorists, the quality of the roads has continued to improve - except in 50kph zones, where spine-shattering surfaces serve as a form of speed limiter. This seems to work, for the French observe urban speed limits with greater care than the British.

However roundabouts can be quite challenging, as the French seldom indicate, sometimes making it difficult to guess if the car entering the Roulade two exits away on your left is going to take the first exit, or suddenly lean on its door handles and pass in front of you! At least the French do not use many painted circle-type mini roundabouts, which most UK drivers will drive across, even when another car is circumnavigating it correctly.

Priorité à droite seems to defy logic, but best to expect others to assume priorité and not do so yourself unless conditions are absolutely safe!

Another thing which often causes the British driver some consternation is a sign pointing left on the right hand side of the road which means ‘Straight On’, while a similar sign on the left hand side means ‘Left’. Nowhere will you find the familiar’Upwards’ sign meaning ‘Straight On’. Best to master this early in your trip, as the French do like to hoot indecisive drivers!
Putting the record straight.
Obviously many were as concerned as me by recent media comments about lavender and tea tree oils causing prepubertal gynaecomastia (See Newsletter 180). FMA (Fragrance Materials Association of the United States), ATTIA (Australian Tea Tree Industry Association) and the highly respected aromatherapy authority Robert Tisserand were quick to respond.

Tisserand, in his Press Release, states that the risks have been grossly exaggerated. None of the products were analysed by the researchers to ascertain whether they did in fact contain lavender or tea tree oils. Even if they did, we do not know whether they contained sufficient quantities to have a physiological effect.

Derek Henley, who authored the research on which these reports were based, has said there is “not enough evidence to suggest people should stop using products containing these oils, even young boys”, and that no firm conclusions can be drawn.

The details given about the cases are sketchy, but there is good reason to believe that tea tree oil could not have had any effect at all and that, in another case, lavender oil could not have caused gynaecomastia.

Further, the researchers failed to check for chemical hormone disrupters, such as parabens, pesticides and phthalates, that may have been in the products concerned. Nevertheless tests did show evidence that both essential oils had an oestrogen-like action, but any correlation between the laboratory testing and the three cases in question is at best circumstantial. Whilst the results of this in vitro study were the first mention of essential oils being implicated in gynaecomastia, the report also referenced other plant products that act like oestrogens, such as soy containing products (genistein) specifically.

The activation of a receptor in vitro is, of course, not necessarily predictive of what may happen in human beings. For example, we know that naturally-occurring chemicals in vegetables bind to and activate the oestrogen receptor in vitro, but eating vegetables does not produce adverse effects associated with oestrogen receptor activation. Any finding in this screening assay must be confirmed by testing in an in vivo system (FMA).

Furthermore, the three cases were, curiously, in Denver, Colorado, and, when the report was originally given in 2006 it mentioned 5 boys, but, inexplicably, only 3 of these are presented in the 2007 report.

ATTIA reports that Dr. Henley told a representative from Melaleuca Inc., a USA company selling tea tree oil products, that while he was being interviewed by reporters about the report, he had the definite impression that they were trying to get him to say that lavender oil and tea tree oil cause gynaecomastia so that they could publish a headline that these products should not be used. Scaring consumers about dangers of ‘safe’ products sells newspapers (and gives exposure to scientific journals in the face of their credibility).

The tea tree industry around the world has a long history of documenting all adverse events reported - and two of the largest companies selling retail products, with global sales in excess of 150 million units over three decades, have never had a single instance of this bizarre side effect reported.

Prepubertal gynaecomastia is an extremely rare condition. Both lavender and tea tree oil are present in aromatherapy cosmetics used by millions of people, who should be assured that they can continue to use them safely.

Perception of risk.
Whilst writing the above, I was reminded of the outbreaks of e-coli 0157 poisoning in the United States last year. E-coli 0157 is a strain of the common intestinal bacteria that causes bloody diarrhoea and, in some cases, leads to kidney failure. E-coli 0157:H7 bacteria, to give them their full name, are potent bugs. You need ingest only 20 of them to fall ill, while 1m or more Vibrio cholerae cells are needed to cause cholera.

The prime suspect for the e-coli poisoning of 70 people at Taco Bell restaurants was lettuce. In another outbreak, in which some 200 people fell ill, of whom 31 had kidney problems and three died, the cause was traced to Californian spinach - much of it organic.

The US and other countries have reduced e-coli poisoning from eating beef by killing bacteria on their way through the food chain. E-coli 0157 thrive in cows’ intestines and infect beef when hides smeared with dung touch meat. Better hygiene on farms and in slaughterhouses has prevented this happening so much.

Salad greens, however, present a harder challenge because they cannot be heated to kill microbes. “It is difficult to eliminate e-coli once they are there. There’s not much that restaurants and consumers can do,” says Trevor Suslow of the University of California. E-coli get on the surface of crops in particles of dung and inside them in contaminated irrigation water. Organic crops are probably more at risk because they are fertilized with manure. One study found harmless e-coli, indicating contamination by faeces, on just under 10 per cent of organic produce compared with 2 per cent on other produce.

Of course, farms can be made safer. Certified organic farms, which follow guidelines on how long manure has to be kept before being used as fertilizer, showed contamination on only 5 per cent of produce, and water supplies can be more rigorously checked for e-coli 0157. But e-coli bacteria are likely to keep slipping into spinach and lettuce occasionally, and to make their way through the harvesting and bagging of salad to restaurant and kitchen tables. Does this mean that we should cease eating salad until the food industry comes up with a method of killing bacteria on infected leaves?

No, that would be stupid, although such a notion is understandable. E-coli poisoning is nasty and people do not want to take a chance on getting it. Children are vulnerable to the severe form of illness, which no parent is going to dismiss lightly. But, as usual, our perception of risk is distorted. It is far more dangerous for a child to cross the road, or to go swimming, than eat organic salad.

However e-coli 0157 poisoning, like prepubertal gynaecomastia, is one of those things to which human beings find it hard to respond to dispassionately: rare events that are extremely unpleasant. The fact that falling from 35,000 feet would be terrifying makes people fear flying although they know that aircraft rarely crash.

Similarly, the chance of contracting e-coli poisoning from salad is tiny. The study that found e-coli on many crops did not find 0157 on any of them. Although 70 people fell ill through eating lettuce at Taco Bell restaurants, this is 0.000002 per cent of the 35 million people who eat at one of 5,800 Taco Bell outlets in the US each week.

There are some things that, if they are going to get you, are going to get you! 

Climatic affective disorder?
By now you will have detected that I am giving the in-depth analysis of essential oils and the world of aromatherapy a little rest, until I catch up with my reading! In the meantime, I have been taking quite a keen interest in climate change.

Last December was the warmest December in Russia since Russian weather records began more than 130 years ago and saw large parts of the country basking in temperatures well above zero and enjoying an extraordinary absence of snow. Bears woke up from hibernation believing Spring had arrived, birds at Moscow Zoo indulged in mating rituals, and bluebells sprouted from the forest floors. For the fast-expanding crowd of westerners living in Moscow, the warm weather was welcome. But for the Russians, it led to an attack of collective angst.

Muscovites shook their heads muttering darkly that nothing good could come of winter’s failure to arrive, while Russian television news made much of warnings that the lack of snow, coupled with the short, dark days, could lead to an outbreak of national depression. Snow, it seems, reflects what little sunlight there is, helping to trigger the brain to produce more mood-enhancing chemicals.

NTV television, owned by state-controlled Gazprom, screened a documentary suggesting the mild winter was the belated result of global warming sparked not by carbon emissions but by the so-called Tunguska Event of 1908 - when a meteorite or comet is believed to have exploded in the air above a remote part of Siberia with the force of a nuclear blast. The warming climate, it continued, might be part of a chain reaction that would lead to a new ice age and the end of the world in 2019!

Suddenly the prospect of Oxford-on-Sea by 2100 does not seem so alarming! 
      

The £100 sandwich!
I read recently that some establishment is selling a £100 sandwich, which makes my £1.50 BLT sarnie exceptional value! This extravagant manifestation of the 4th Earl of Sandwich’s invention contains quail eggs and shavings of Alba white truffle amongst other ingredients. Apparently the addition of the truffle justifies the price. In which case, I think that I would go for the delete option! Still, what is it about truffles that gets gourmet chefs and diners around the world puffing and strutting? Surely they are only Eutuberaceae tubers sniffed out by specially trained dogs and pigs. But unprocessed first class whites sell for more than 2,500 euros per kilo, or roughly £50 per truffle - and I am probably being conservative! Italy’s Alba white truffles are the most famous, and therefore by inference the most expensive, but I do wonder if they all come from Italy.

Many years ago, when I was researching snail farming as a possible alternative for British farmers, I could never quite equate France’s considerable processed output of escargots with its number of snail farms, until I discovered that many of the gastropods were coming from former Yugoslavia!

Istria, the historically Italian province at the north-west corner of today’s Croatian Republic, has traditionally exported white truffles, but they lack the cachet of Alban whites. Exports from Istria started in 1929, when Italian railway builders discovered white truffles in the forest around Motovun. Truffle hunting forms a substantial part of the Istrian economy, but it is part of the grey economy.

Smuggling to Italy started in the late 1980s, when corruption caused the old marketing system to collapse. Formerly, sales were managed through a socialist collective managed by the state forest authority. Today, Croatian law is fairly “flexible”. Middlemen sell to smugglers for “Alba minus 30 per cent”, as the Italian truffle capital continues to set world prices. It seems that, in a good season, around 90 tonnes of Istrian truffles are smuggled through Slovenia and into Italy!

Castaway & Kanuka.
Yes, Castaway is certainly here in force and lots of the locals have work at the location. It’s at Harataonga, which is on the eastern coast and about halfway down the island. I have some exclusive pictures of the first Castaway arrivals at Port FitzRoy. Take a look at my website at www.thebarrier.co.nz/photographs.htm until Sven sends you some of his, e-mailed Kay Stowell from Great Barrier Island.

Some may recollect that Great Barrier Island, which Jan and I visited a few years ago, is the origin of our Kanuka oil (Kunzea ericoides J. Thompson). I can think of no better place for the latest Castaway television production.

It really is a world of it own. With sheltered mangrove estuaries, exposed ocean coasts, protected fiord-like harbours, coastal and freshwater wetlands, large and minute offshore islands, it is an ideal spot to be shipwrecked. Kanuka and manuka trees grow profusely. We have been purchasing Barrier kanuka oil for more than a decade, distilled from leaf manually harvested from wild stands growing on the precipitous, mountainous terrain.
 
Published shortly before our visit in 1996, Te Rongoa Maori (Maori Medicine) by ‘Pip’ Williams is a compilation of the author’s observations of the use by Maori of plant material for medicinal purposes. A pharmacist by training, P.M.E. Williams treasured the Maori people and enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the Ngapuhi people in particular. It was from them that he learnt about Maori medicines and their importance in local people’s lives. I believe that he was in his ninety-third year at the time of publication. Who better to comment on Red (Manuka) and White (Kanuka) tea trees?

Early settlers brewed the leaves as a substitute for tea, hence the common English name. An infusion of the leaves was also used as a drink to treat kidney and bladder complaints and to reduce fever in children. It was often used to ease coughing in adults. A decoction of the bark was another cure for diarrhoea and dysentery, but it is the capsules or seeds with which I am most acquainted. They seem to have had many uses. When chewed, they were universally successful in curing stomach complaints. I was also told that a poultice of the crushed and boiled seeds was effective in healing an open wound. A decoction of the leaves and bark was also applied to ease pain. The ‘castaways’ are living midst a pharmacy!

Like many authors, Mr. Williams does not differentiate between the attributes of Manuka and Kanuka, because at the time little analysis had been done of the respective plants and their chemotypes. However, he does make a telling comment.
A small industry has been started on the East Coast (of New Zealand) to extract the oil of these species which is said to be effective against some diseases where antibiotics have proved unsuccessful. We have not heard the last of these trees, and further research is called for. Precisely why I was visiting Great Barrier! But unfortunately Great Barrier’s manuka and kanuka oils do not contain leptospermone.

Who would have thought it?!
Over the last decade more than 1,500 allotments have been lost in London. However, demand is at an all-time high: with 4,300 people on waiting lists, some face a decade’s wait!

Wind farms across the world are killing bats at an alarming rate, researchers say: 3,000 bat deaths were recorded in six weeks at one US wind farm. Fortunately, there may be an answer - radar. Bats either feel the heat of the radiation or can actually hear it. Either way, when the radar is on, the bats are off!

If you have found any stick insects in your garden, the national recorder of these twiglike insects, Malcolm Lee, would like to hear from you. Photographs would help so that he can confirm the species. Established populations are found in the southwest of Britain. Give him a call on 01208 880106. Talk about needles in a haystack!

Bobby, a gorilla at London Zoo, eats 1,265g mixed greens, 1,150g iceberg lettuce, 690g cucumber, 575g each of broccoli and leeks, 345g each of swede and carrots, 230g of bananas, 80g of mixed seeds, and 60g of unsweetened plain popcorn every day. No wonder there is a waiting list for allotments. What is more, he washes it all down with 6-8 litres of herbal tea, preferably Twinings!

Further tea tree bashing.
To be honest, I am getting pretty fed-up with the endless adverse media comment about tea tree oil, but it is not going to go away by ignoring it. Latest up is the University of Ulster.

Dr. Ann McMahon and Professor David McDowell, members of the University’s Food Microbiology Group, suggest that repeated exposure to low doses of Tea Tree Oil can increase the chances of suffering from “superbug” infections. They have been growing pathogens such as MRSA, E-coli and Salmonella in low concentrations of tea tree oil.

These concentrations, they say, are not sufficient to kill the bacteria, but can switch on their defence mechanisms, having the added effect of making bacteria more resistant to antibiotics, and able to cause “harder to treat” infections. They hypothesize that, if a person uses tea tree oil products on their skin repeatedly, any MRSA on their skin could develop increased resistance to the antibiotics which are used to control MRSA infections.

Publishing their findings in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, they added “The bottom line is that tea tree oil should not be used at low concentrations - less than 4% - to make sure that bacteria are killed, not just stessed. Otherwise we are arming the bacteria against treatment by antibiotics.”

Interestingly, when tea tree was simply used as an effective antimicrobial, it was rarely used at less than 5%. What do you think?

Finally....
I am told that there are still a few places left on Gill Farrer-Halls’ Making Mood Perfumes course on Saturday, 14th April, and Lotte Rose’s Cold Mix day on Saturday, 22nd April, but you had better be quick because they are going fast.

Meanwhile, I’m off to catch up on my reading!   

charles@essentiallyoils.com

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