The Mud Experience; A Lesson on Sulfur.

Island of Vulcano, Sicily---It’s spelled sulphur here and in many parts of the world. But in the U.S. it’s spelled sulfur. It is what we have been surrounded by for the last two weeks and mainly SMELLING. At times I thought I was having breathing problems from it and I’ve had more sinus headaches here than I do in a year.

But, I hate to admit it, but the smell is less repulsive as my first walk through town. So a couple of days ago, I gave in and decided to experience the mud pit. Join the others I have watched every day wallowing in the gray pit of liquid mud or Funghi (fungee) as they call it here.

But when I read the huge signs claiming all the healing powers, I thought it screamed HOAX like Scientology screams “give me your money,” ...but if you believe it, it is so. Allergy problems, inflammation, dystrophy, respiratory problems, (wait, WHAT?) ...dislocations, muscle problems, sprains, skin diseases...all this for only three Euro, including a shower.

It was warm, but only hot when you stepped on a vent. Then I burned my foot and screamed. Bubbles rose all around and the edge of the pit had bubbles coming up from underground. The scene looked like a version of Gilligan’s Island, whether you are a native painted in mud or in a big pot being boiled up for dinner. Scoops from the bottom delivered pure mud that was spread to cover the body and let the sun dry it. Wearing contacts, I decided to skip the forehead, but just like a face mask treatment, the skin tightened as the mud dried. Once you rinse off with the liquid mud in the pit, you can make your way down narrow steps to the sea and enjoy some Jacuzzi like vents that again, will burn your feet if stepped on directly.

One scene, there at the water’s edge, that I can’t get out of my head was an elderly Italian women who had dog-paddled from the steps to an area that had pure sulfur in the side of the hill. A large women, she gingerly navigated the large slippery rocks to get out of the water and to the side of the hill only to start clawing at the bright yellow sulfur. A short time later she had a hand full and looking unbalanced, made her way back to the water and sat on a rock with a large exhale. I watched as she dripped sea water into her hand forming a yellow sulfur ball. Then she began spreading it on her swollen calves with bright red skin from what looked like psoriasis. She had a desperate look in her eyes. It looked painful. Soon she was covered with bright, bright yellow, looking a lot like yellow mustard smeared in patches over her body or a paint ball game gone bad. I looked at her and made eye contact. She pointed to the red skin and then the sulfur. I nodded and motioned with my thumb up, saying “better?” She quickly nodded “yes” and said “si, si, funghi.” I swam away with a knot in my stomach hoping with her, that it would give her relief.

My own experience was tainted by the smell. I just couldn’t stand it any longer and showered off and went back to the boat wondering if I would need to sit in a bath of lemon or tomato juice to get the smell off.

And AFTER, submerging my body and filling my lungs up close and personal, I decided to research a little. Wikipedia is my source for the following information but the Italic comments are my own:

Sulfur, in its native form, is a bright yellow crystalline solid. Its commercial uses are primarily in fertilizers, but it is also widely used in black gunpowder, matches. ---oh great. Now you tell me. I sat in that for an hour.

Early English translations of the Bible commonly referred to burning sulfur as "brimstone", giving rise to the name of 'fire-and-brimstone ' sermons, in which listeners are reminded of the fate of eternal damnation that await the unbelieving and unrepentant. It is from this part of the Bible that Hell is implied to "smell of sulfur" ---um, anyone in the tourism department listening here? Didn’t mention this in the brochure. “Vulcano: the closest you’ll get to Hell before going there.” Okay...maybe not.

According to the Elbers Papyrus, a sulfur ointment was used in ancient Egypt to treat granular eyelids. Sulfur was used for fumigation in preclassical Greece. It was known in China since the 6th century BC. By the 3rd century, the Chinese were interested in sulfur’s flammability and its reactivity to certain metals. Yet its earliest practical uses were found in traditional Chinese medicine. ---okay, so it’s been around a while but so has leech therapy.

The strong "smell of sulfur" usually refers to the odor of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) or organosulfur compounds, e.g. from rotten egg, or sulfur dioxide, the smell associated with burnt matches. The smell emanating from raw sulfur originates from a slow oxidation in the presence of air. Hydrogen sulfide is the principal odor of untreated sewage and is one of several unpleasant smelling sulfur-containing components of flatulence. ---So I’m not imagining it. This place stinks.

In traditional medical skin treatment which predates modern era of scientific medicine, elemental sulfur has been used mainly as part of creams to alleviate various conditions such as psoriasis, eczema and acne. The mechanism of action is not known, although elemental sulfur does oxidize slowly to sulfurous acid, which in turn (through the action of sulfite) acts as a mild reducing and antibacterial agent. ---All the old folks I saw, day after day making their way to the mud. Believing it was their cure. For me, I would rather use Neosporin instead.