Organic News
Study links Parkinson's Disease to pesticide exposure
A new study of more than three hundred cases of neurological disease has found evidence of a link between the disease and long term exposure to pesticides.
The research looked at the lifetime pesticide exposure of 319 Parkinson's patients and more than 200 of their relatives without the disease. The results, published in the journal BMC Neurology, showed that people with Parkinson's were 1.6 times as likely to report an exposure to pesticides in their lifetimes compared with their relatives. As well as that, people with the Parkinson's were 2.4 times as likely as people without the disease to report heavy exposure to pesticides, classed as more than 215 days over a lifetime. The exposure appeared to be connected mainly to use in the home and through hobbies rather than working with pesticides as a job.
Researchers say that there is insufficient evidence yet to definitively say that Parkinson's is caused by pesticide exposure but that exposure to these chemicals may trigger the disease in genetically predisposed people.
