Increased risks for Parkinson’s disease have been linked to some solvents. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive, degenerative central nervous system disorder that typically affects motor skills and speech, among other functions and, while not fatal, complications can be deadly. The cause is unknown and there is no cure. Samuel M. Goldman, M.D., M.P.H., of The […]
Increased risks for Parkinson’s disease have been linked to some solvents. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive, degenerative central nervous system disorder that typically affects motor skills and speech, among other functions and, while not fatal, complications can be deadly. The cause is unknown and there is no cure.
Samuel M. Goldman, M.D., M.P.H., of The Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale, California, and colleagues, conducted a so-called “discordant twin pair design study” involving 99 pairs of twins. The study was conducted to determine if exposure to specific solvents is linked to increased risks for Parkinson’s disease. Participant interviews involved task-specific and lifetime occupation and hobby questions, said Medical Xpress. The study was published in the Annals of Neurology.
The researchers found that exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE) was associated with a significantly increased risk of Parkinson’s disease and saw a trend for significance for exposure to the chemicals perchloroethylene (PERC) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). “Although the present work focused on occupational exposures, solvents are ubiquitous in the environment, and this is particularly true for those implicated in this study—TCE, PERC, and CCl4,” the authors wrote, according to Medical Xpress. “Our findings require replication in other populations with well-characterized exposures, but the potential public health implications are considerable,” the team authored.
We’ve also written that over the past several years, the agricultural pesticide paraquat has been linked to Parkinson’s, posing a risk to agricultural workers who toil in fields where the pesticide is sprayed, as well as to people living near the fields.
Other research revealed that people exposed at their workplaces to ziram, maneb, and paraquat tripled their risk of Parkinson’s; workplace exposure to both ziram and paraquat nearly doubled Parkinson’s risk; and people who worked with either paraquat or the pesticide rotenone were 2.5 times likelier to develop Parkinson’s disease.
Another study found that some medications, notably the amphetamines Benzedrine or Dexedrine, used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and help patients achieve more defined focus and increase clarity and awareness, could also place those patients at risk for Parkinson’s disease.
We recently wrote that another study found an association with glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsato’s Roundup, and Parkinson’s disease and Parkinson’s-related brain disorders. According to a report from the Organic Authority, Roundup is the best-selling pesticide in the world and is the companion chemical application to many of the company’s genetically modified seeds including corn, soy, canola and cotton.
According to Digital Journal, this is just the latest study to find a link between glyphosate and Parkinson’s-like disorders. For example, a 2011 report published in the journal Parkinsonism Related Disorders, detailed the case of a 44-year-old women with Parkinson’s-like symptoms after sustaining long-term chemical exposure to glyphosate for three years as a worker in a chemical factory.