WHITE BLOOD CELLS ON POLAR VACATION

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31879, 6 January 1969, Page 1

WHITE BLOOD CELLS ON POLAR VACATION

The atmosphere of the South Polar plateau appears to be so healthy and free of germs that the body’s defence mechanisms take a holiday there. Dr A. B. Blackburn, who was the officer in charge of the American Plateau Station, 700 miles from the South Pole, from November, 1966, to November, 1967, came to this conclusion after studying levels of white blood cells in the men making up the winter party at the tiny station. Writing in the American “Antarctic Journal,” Dr Blackburn records a drop in white blood cell counts from a nor-

raal Average of 7350 cells in a cubic centimetre of blood to 3660 cells. When the men returned to sea level at Christchurch the count jumped up again to an average of 7630. “This finding is probably indicative of the near-sterile environment of the South Polar plateau,” says Dr Blackburn. “The lack of repetitive stimulation of the body’s defence mechanisms must result in a decrease in circulating white blood cells. “The rapid rise in white blood cell counts on return to sea level and civilisation discounts a pathological decline in this defence mechanism.”