Hydrazine: A bomb in our stomachs: A rocket fuel: A cancer cure

Chemophobia is a term meaning an irrational fear of chemicals in the environment: that no matter how tiny an exposure one faces, the chemical is to be avoided at all costs. Such fears are unnecessary and baseless, given the fact that we are all made of 'chemicals.' Every piece of food we eat, every breath we take, every move we make results in the ingestion of a chemical of some sort.

In spite these cautionary words, if you are chemophobic, here's something that will scare you out of your wits. Try to imagine that you have somehow accidentally swallowed a small but powerful bomb that will go off in your stomach if you move too much. No kidding. Because of anammox bugs we all produce hydrazine in our tummies. And if you don't already know, hydrazine is the proper name for rocket fuel. (1) About ten years ago, a new type of microbe was found that produces atmospheric nitrogen form ammonia by a radically different method know as anammox. Anammox is an abbreviation for ANaerobic AMMonium OXidation. Once anammox bugs were discovered, microbiologists started finding then everywhere including in our stomachs. And since our bodies also have nitrogen, we end up with some hydrazine. Turns out that anammox bugs are going to be very useful in all sorts of places, especially in sewage treatment plants, where their ability to convert noxious ammonia gases into innocuous nitrogen will be much appreciated. Anammox bugs don't need oxygen or energy to clean up the ammonia in the sewage so there are going to be a lot of savings on power and machinery in the new anammox-using plants, reports Idan Ben-Barak. (1)

---

The first full scale sludge-water treatment plant where the anammox process is utilized was built in 2000 in Germany. As of 2006 there were three full scale processes in The Netherlands; one on a municipal waste water treatment plant (in Rotterdam); and two on industrial effluent. One is a tannery, the other a potato processing plant. (2) As mentioned earlier, hydrazine has been used as fuel for many rockets and spacecraft, including the space shuttle. Hydrazine is also used as a foaming agent in preparing polymer foams, but significant applications include its use as a precursor to polymerization catalysts and pharmaceuticals. (3) Small amounts of hydrazine have been found in tobacco. Therefore, people who chew tobacco or smoke cigarettes may be exposed to small amounts of this chemical. (4) Hydrazine is also carcinogenic to laboratory rats but there has never been a case of human cancer reported as a result of hydrazine sulfate therapy. (5). Yet, here's the real surprise—hydrazine is also a potential cancer-killer. More than 400 hydrazine-related compounds have been tested for their ability to kill cancer cells. One of these compounds, procarbazine, has been used to treat Hodgkin's disease, melanoma, and lung cancer sine the 1960s. Hydrazine sulfate has been studied as a treatment for cancer and for cancer-related anorexia (loss of appetite) and cachexia (loss of muscle and body weight). (6) So there you have it. We produce a known rocket fuel which can also possibly kill cancer cells. Here's a question- Could cancer cells start their growth in our bodies because we aren't producing enough hydrazine? Jack Dini Livermore, CA References

1. Idan Ben-Barak, The Invisible Kingdom, (New York, Basic Books, 2009), 57
2. “Anammox,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anammox, accessed September 4, 2013
3. “Hydrazine,” en.wikipedia.org, accessed September 13, 2013
4. “Public health statement for hydrazines,” September 1997, Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry
5. “The truth about hydrazine sulfate-Dr. Gold speaks,” hydrazinesulfate.org, May 28, 2009
6. “Hydrazine Sulfate,” National Cancer institute, cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/hydrazinesulfate/Patient/page2, accessed, September 17, 2013