Town falling asleep

[dragon]

THERE’S something really strange happening in a Kazakhstan town, residents keep falling asleep, sometimes for up to six days at a time.

Since Spring of 2013, one in 10 of the 600 villagers of Kalachi are falling asleep in broad daylight and no one seems to know why. They’ve called it a sleep epidemic with symptoms including hallucinations, dizziness, weakness and memory loss.
Lying 445km from Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, Kalachi was once a top secret town due to its proximity to a uranium mine. A documentary recently released by RT says many reports now blame this disused mine, that closed in the 1980s, for the epidemic with reports suggesting water from the mine may be seeping into local rivers.

Locals have also developed their own conspiracy theories including alien viruses and government experimentation. But the case has puzzled authorities as residents of Krasnogorsk, a town lying closer to the mine, have reported no cases of sleeping sickness.
A report in the Siberian Times says scientists have conducted more than 7000 experiments on soil, water, air, patients’ blood, hair, nails have been unable to determine the cause of the affliction.

Labelled Sleepy Valley and Sleepy Hollow, people are falling asleep in the most unexpected of places — at work, at school and in the street. Nothing can be done to wake them up with many having no recollection of the instance.

One resident told the Siberian Times of her experience.

“I was milking cows, as usual, early in the morning, and fell asleep. I remember nothing at all, only that when I came round I was in a hospital ward, and the nurses smiled and me, and said: ‘Welcome back sleeping princess, you’ve finally woken up’.”

“What else do I remember? Nothing. I slept for two days and two nights.

“The women in my ward said that I tried to wake up several times, saying urgently needed to milk my cows.”
The epidemic seems to happen in waves with unexplained sleep reported around New Year 2014, May 2014 and most recently in October 2014.

A special commission was created from specialists from several Kazakh ministries to investigate the situation in Kalachi however the cause continues to remain a mystery.

link

[biostem]

If this town is/was isolated, it could be a high occurrence of narcolepsy due to limited genetic diversity...

[Broomstick]

Do these people have the same problem when they leave the town? Do people coming into the town fall prey to the problem?

If so, it's in the environment. There have been instances near volcanic areas in Africa where gas concentrations become sufficient to render people unconscious or even kill them. Is that a possibility?

[Ziggy Stardust]

If this town is/was isolated, it could be a high occurrence of narcolepsy due to limited genetic diversity...

But this wouldn't be something that sprung up overnight and took everybody by surprise. It would be something that would have been known about for decades. Further, narcolepsy isn't a strongly inherited trait to begin with.

If so, it's in the environment. There have been instances near volcanic areas in Africa where gas concentrations become sufficient to render people unconscious or even kill them. Is that a possibility?

It is almost certainly some sort of environmental factor. The symptoms are not unlike those of several relatively well studied diseases that are caused by parasitic infections. It's not impossible that it is some form of parasite or contamination that they simply haven't detected yet, or haven't thought to look for.

To be honest, I am having a hard time finding information on this from reliable sources; when I Google it I only come across website s that I don't put much faith in (many of them advocating supernatural origins or conspiracy theories). Until a more reputable source reports on this, I'm partially inclined to not believe this is even happening at all.

[Irbis]

If so, it's in the environment. There have been instances near volcanic areas in Africa where gas concentrations become sufficient to render people unconscious or even kill them. Is that a possibility?

Not really. Kazakhstan is right in the middle of Eurasian plate, a few thousand km from closest volcanic activity on the edge of Arabian / Indian plates. Of course, it might be gas releasing from some underground deposits, or even pollution from Soviet times, but that is rather unlikely.

I'd too like to read on it in some respectable source, though with Soviet Union gone central Asia is ass end of nowhere even for Russian scientists, much less western ones, so I wouldn't be holding my breath.

[General Zod]

I'd put money on radiation poisoning from a contaminated water supply thanks to their closed uranium mine.

[Enigma]

I'd put money on radiation poisoning from a contaminated water supply thanks to their closed uranium mine.

Except there's a town that is closer to the mine and they do not experience the same sleeping sickness.

[Simon_Jester]

Unless it's closer to the mine in the same direction, and draws water from the same supply, it might still not be affected. The underground flow of water into aquifers is a funny thing.

It's like, if you dump poison into a creek fifty miles upstream from the river I get my drinking water from, I will be affected. A guy on the other side of a mountain from you, five miles away as the crow flies, might NOT be affected, just because he doesn't drink out of the same watershed.

I'd put money on radiation poisoning from a contaminated water supply thanks to their closed uranium mine.

Is there any case on record of radiation poisoning causing narcolepsy-like symptoms, but no other obvious symptoms? We know what radiation poisoning looks like, and this isn't it unless I am badly wrong.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Though I can't find any information on exactly where the mine is located, a quick Google map search shows that Kalachi (the town experiencing the strange symptoms) and Krasnogorsk (the town that is described as being 'closer to the mine' that isn't experiencing symptoms) are literally right next to each other. The towns flow into each other- the town centers are less than one mile apart. Honestly, for all intents and purposes they are the same town. I can't find any spot in either town that is more than 2 miles from a spot in the other.

Now, looking at the map, both towns are situated on the Ishim River, but through each town run separate rivulets that flow from the nearby hills into the river proper. If there is waterborne contamination, it be the case that the mine is only contaminating one of the rivulets that flows through Kalachi, and not the one that feeds through Krasnogorsk. Krasnogorsk also looks like a larger town, and upstream of Kalachi on the Ishim, and that they get their water primarily from the uncontaminated river proper, while the denizens of the smaller town (especially on the outskirts) are stuck getting their drinking water from contaminated sources.

Obviously, this is pure speculation. But simply the fact that Krasnogorsk is "closer to" the mine doesn't rule out water contamination, by a cursory glance at the local geography.

Is there any case on record of radiation poisoning causing narcolepsy-like symptoms, but no other obvious symptoms?

Where are you getting the "no other obvious symptoms" part? The article the in the OP lists a number of symptoms besides the sleeping, such as dizziness, hallucinations, weakness, and memory loss.

[Simon_Jester]

[blinks]

Sorry, I think my brain must be fried. Bad day. Conceding the inaccuracy of my previous remarks:

1) My point about water supplies can reasonably be rephrased as "if it's something in the water affecting town A, we have to know that town B is getting its water from the same place." This is not a given even if the two towns are adjacent, but that's still relevant information

2) Factoring in the other symptoms discussed, it becomes more plausible that this is radiation poisoning... but still not very plausible. Are we seeing physical symptoms like hair loss or vomiting? Nausea is a very common symptom of radiation poisoning and is probably even more of a symptom if you just drank radioactive water.

I would think that chemical toxicity from mine tailings is far more likely than radiation poisoning. And chemical toxicity from something else in the environment that has nothing to do with the uranium mine is also likely.

[Broomstick]

For most types of uranium contamination kidney damage will kill you before radiation will. Many types of uranium compounds, including ores, are more toxic chemically than radiologically. Not that either is good.

[fgalkin]

Krasnogorsk used to be the primary mining town and had a population of over 6.5 thousand. It had been largely abandoned once the mine closed and now has a population of 130. Kalachi is the bigger settlement.

unexplained sleep reported around New Year 2014, May 2014 and most recently in October 2014.

Considering that the waves of "sleeping sickness" seem to come around major holidays, I think the cops should have a chat with the proprietor of the village store where his food and alcohol comes from. That's the most likely culprit for this "mysterious illness."

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin