Geotoxicology of multiple sclerosis: the Henribourg, Saskatchewan, Cluster Focus. I. The water.

Some childhood-related, geographically-linked factor predisposes towards (or protects against) multiple sclerosis (MS). It is quite plausible that this factor could be one or more chemicals in the environment, and that chemical study of the environment or "focus" of an MS cluster might maximize the chances of detecting such an etiological link. The water chemistry of such a focus (Henribourg, Saskatchewan) was compared with North American norms, and with the chemistry of water from a nearby control area with a near-zero incidence of MS and of childhood homes of MS cases. Overall, the results suggest that an environment predisposing to MS may have a number of water chemistry characteristics such as: relative deficiency of selenium and sulfate, but relative abundance of barium, calcium, chloride, chromium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nitrate plus nitrite, strontium and zinc. Possible explanations for the apparent link between the excess rate of MS and the water geochemistry findings at Henribourg are discussed.