Parkinson's Disease Associated With Pesticide Exposure In French Farm Workers

Mousehound · 06-07-2009, 08:51 AM

ScienceDaily (June 5, 2009) — The cause of Parkinson’s disease (PD), the second most frequent neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease, is unknown, but in most cases it is believed to involve a combination of environmental risk factors and genetic susceptibility. Laboratory studies in rats have shown that injecting the insecticide rotenone leads to an animal model of PD and several epidemiological studies have shown an association between pesticides and PD, but most have not identified specific pesticides or studied the amount of exposure relating to the association.

A new epidemiological study involving the exposure of French farm workers to pesticides found that professional exposure is associated with PD, especially for organochlorine insecticides.

Led by Alexis Elbaz M.D., Ph.D., of Inserm, the national French institute for health research in Paris, and University Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC, Paris 6), the study involved individuals affiliated with the French health insurance organization for agricultural workers who were frequently exposed to pesticides in the course of their work. Occupational health physicians constructed a detailed lifetime exposure history to pesticides by interviewing participants, visiting farms, and collecting a large amount of data on pesticide exposure. These included farm size, type of crops, animal breeding, which pesticides were used, time period of use, frequency and duration of exposure per year, and spraying method.

The study found that PD patients had been exposed to pesticides through their work more frequently and for a greater number of years/hours than those without PD. Among the three main classes of pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides), researchers found the largest difference for insecticides: men who had used insecticides had a two-fold increase in the risk of PD.

Read the full article here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0604124802.htm

flourbug · 06-07-2009, 09:28 AM

My best friend woke at 8 am on a Saturday morning to her children screaming. Their house was dark and filled with noxious, choking fumes. The first thing she thought of was fire. The children ran into her bedroom. She opened a window so they could climb onto the porch roof. That's when she discovered her house had been covered in plastic and pesticides were being pumped into the bubble.

The exterminators had the wrong address. They were supposed to fumigate the unoccupied house across the street. My friend and her children spent a week in the hospital. Their pets all died. After the doctors cleared the family they accepted a small settlement and moved on from the frightening experience. My friend used the money to go to med school.

While in school she started to develop neurological problems. It seemed like she was always being tested for tremors, unsteady gait, vision and speech problems. Watching her deteriorate was heartbreaking. All of her tests came back negative - including those that would detect pesticides in her tissues. After 10 years she was finally diagnosed with Parkinson's. Eight years after her diagnosis, eighteen years after that terrible morning, she died.

She and I always thought her Parkinson's was a result of the pesticide exposure. It was just too much of a coincidence.

Mousehound · 06-07-2009, 09:38 AM

Hopefully no one else in that family will develope Parkinson's.

Ought Six · 06-07-2009, 02:29 PM

Pesticides are literally nerve gas for bugs. The exact same precursor chemicals for many commonly used pesticides are also the precursors for military nerve gas. For decades I have been explaining this to people as part of my rationale for eating organics foods wherever possible. People usually laugh at the idea, thinking that it is stupid to believe that substances being eaten by most people in the developed world could cause serious neurological damage. In so many things, us humans are painfully slow learners.

Ross · 06-08-2009, 08:12 AM

You have me worried now 06 . I have been a hopeless apple addict all my
life and I sure they are doused in the stuff .

CanadaSue · 06-08-2009, 12:05 PM

Oh they are. Modern apples are loaded with chemicals - no way they'll grow, set fruit & stay 'pretty looking' without being drenched in various sprays.

Ought Six · 06-08-2009, 06:32 PM

You can help a little by using a vegetable soap on the skin before eating to remove as much residue as possible. Of course, the right solution is to buy organic produce.

Arianwen · 06-08-2009, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flourbug

My best friend woke at 8 am on a Saturday morning to her children screaming. Their house was dark and filled with noxious, choking fumes. The first thing she thought of was fire. The children ran into her bedroom. She opened a window so they could climb onto the porch roof. That's when she discovered her house had been covered in plastic and pesticides were being pumped into the bubble.

The exterminators had the wrong address. They were supposed to fumigate the unoccupied house across the street. My friend and her children spent a week in the hospital. Their pets all died. After the doctors cleared the family they accepted a small settlement and moved on from the frightening experience. My friend used the money to go to med school.

While in school she started to develop neurological problems. It seemed like she was always being tested for tremors, unsteady gait, vision and speech problems. Watching her deteriorate was heartbreaking. All of her tests came back negative - including those that would detect pesticides in her tissues. After 10 years she was finally diagnosed with Parkinson's. Eight years after her diagnosis, eighteen years after that terrible morning, she died.

She and I always thought her Parkinson's was a result of the pesticide exposure. It was just too much of a coincidence.

Are you serious?! That is absolutely horrific! Did she finish her schooling, at least?

That is such a horrifying tale it's difficult to believe.

flourbug · 06-08-2009, 09:29 PM

Very serious, Ari.

She lived on the outskirts of a town where each house was on a few acres. The people in the house across the street went into a nursing home and then died, so it sat empty for quite a while. When the estate caught up with the house it was in bad shape. On that street, all the mailboxes were on one side - if you live on the opposite side of the road you have to cross over to get your mail. The idiots hired to fumigate the house saw the mailbox and assumed the house behind it had the same number.

She had been working as a psych nurse. She finished med school and all the other things needed to become a psychiatrist... then she worked for about two years treating the children of the patients in the mental hospital, before she became too ill to function.

You'd think having a shrink as a best friend would be a bit inhibiting, but she was WILD. Just full of life. It didn't matter how sour a mood I was in when she called, within 30 seconds she had me rolling on the floor laughing. I really miss her.

Ross · 06-19-2009, 06:33 AM

Cancers possibly caused by pesticides .

Yup , that settles it , arh am gonna move from apples to carrots.
My dog also likes carrots but will not touch apples ,
so the mutt must be smarter than me .

Please tell me they do not soak carrots in any of this muck .

Quote:

Women farm workers at high risk of developing cancer
by Neharika Sabharwal - June 19, 2009 - 0 comments

Wellington
, June 18: Public health specialists from Massey University
in New Zealand revealed that agriculture workers have the highest incidences of leukaemia, perhaps due to exposure to pesticides, with women workers being more vulnerable to the malignancy than their male counter parts.

The researchers, from the university’s Centre for Public Health Research, started collecting the data for the purpose of analysis in 2003. The analysis was conducted by interviewing 225 cancer [abnormal cells that divide without control, which can invade nearby tissues or spread through the bloodstream and lymphatic system to other parts of the body. ] patients between the age group of 25 to 75 years and 471 people from the general population who were randomly selected.

Evaluation of the data
During the data collection, the researchers noticed that the risk of leukaemia was four or five times greater among the nursery growers and market gardeners, as compared to the general public, while crop and vegetable growers also experienced an elevated risk of getting the disease.

It was noted that people working in plant nurseries were four times more likely to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma whereas vegetable growers and general horticulture producers seemed to have twice the risk of developing the ailment.

The study also found that the risk differed among market farmers, crop growers, field crop and vegetable growers.

Principal researcher Dr Dave McLean stated that market farmers and growers had an elevated risk of 1.8 times that of the general public, whereas this risk jumped to 3.4 times in women agricultural workers.

Gender difference ambiguous
“It is not clear why this gender difference exists, but it has been hypothesized that it may be due either to the different tasks (and therefore potential for exposure) traditionally performed by men and women in horticultural occupations, or to the fact that some of the chemicals are endocrine disruptors that affect women in a different way than they do men,” McLean said.

McLean further added that the elevated risks of leukemia may be attributed to agrichemicals they use. He felt that since a significant proportion of cases are related to chemical exposures at work, this could be avoided with better exposure controls.

The National Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee of New Zealand have estimated that more than 300 deaths from leukemia in the country, annually, are due to occupational exposures.

Earlier studies of horticultural industry in U.S. and Italy have demonstrated a similar trend in the health of workers exposed to agricultural chemicals like fungicides and insecticides.

These findings have been published by the Oxford University Press for the International Epidemiological Association.

http://www.themedguru.com/20090619/n...-86122828.html