Pesticides ‘increase’ risk of Parkinson’s

Head trauma and exposure to pesticides increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD), researchers have warned today.

Earlier studies have suggested a link between pesticide exposure and PD but no specific agent has been held responsible.

The latest study from the GeoParkinson group argues that the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease increases according to the level of exposure. They investigated whether pesticides including solvents, pesticides, iron, copper and manganese affected 959 people with some PD symptoms (767 of which had PD).

Subjects completed questionnaires regarding their lifetime occupational and recreational exposure to a number of solvents and whether they had ever been knocked unconscious.

The results, published online ahead of print in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, revealed that people who had been exposed to low levels of pesticides were 1.13 times as likely to have PD compared with those who had never been exposed.

Individuals who had been exposed to high levels of pesticides were 1.41 times as likely to be affected.

Studies on head trauma resulting from contact sports found that PD occurred 1.35 times more frequently in people who had been knocked unconscious once compared with those who had never been knocked out.

PD developed 2.53 times more frequently in those who had been knocked out more frequently.

Commenting on their findings, the researchers argue that both pesticide exposure and head trauma can be modified. Boxing can be avoided, they claim, and further research could identify more specifically which pesticides are associated with this effect so that these agents can be substituted.

“This study has provided important evidence of the increased risk of Parkinson’s disease in relation to exposure to pesticides,” they conclude.