Twenty-six farm pesticides were included in the study, although six with widespread use were studied individually to look for connections to Parkinson’s. The goal was to identify specific pesticides that may warrant further investigation.
People drinking well water within 500 meters of a dozen or more of the pesticides had a 66 percent greater rate of Parkinson’s, the study says. Airborne exposure only slightly increased the risk.
The strongest link to the disease was for propargite. Those who had wells near fields sprayed with the chemical had a 90 percent higher risk of having Parkinson’s, according to the study.
About half a million pounds of propargite were sprayed on California crops in 2007, mostly on nuts, corn and grapes, according to the state Department of Pesticide Regulation’s database.
Propargite, sold under the names Omite and Comite, has been used on crops since 1969, but many uses, including the spraying of many fruits and beans, were rescinded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1996 due to the cancer risk. The EPA, however, in 2001 approved its continued use on restricted crops and reported that levels in drinking water are below levels of concern, based on the cancer risk.
Other strong links were found for the insecticides methomyl and chlorpyrifos, which increased the risk of Parkinson’s by 67 percent and 87 percent. Chlorpyrifos, sold under the names Dursban and Lorsban, was banned in the United States for residential use in 2001 but is still widely used on cotton, corn, fruit trees and other crops. Methomyl is highly restricted because of its toxicity and is mostly used on alfalfa.
In recent years, scientists have gathered a large amount of human and animal evidence suggesting that exposure to agricultural pesticides, particularly early in life, may play a major role in who gets Parkinson’s.
University of Rochester scientists found that newborn mice exposed to a mix of two commonly used pesticides—maneb and paraquat—developed Parkinson’s symptoms as they aged. Earlier this year, Ritz and colleagues reported similar human results after investigating Central Valley residents exposed to those same two pesticides.
Parkinson’s is caused when nerve cells die in an area of the brain, called the substantia nigra, that produces dopamine. As dopamine decreases, messages from the brain that control how and when the body moves are blocked.
Only a small percentage of those with the disease share a gene or family history of the disease. Experts say the cause of the vast majority is probably due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
This article originally ran at Environmental Health News, a news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.
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12 Comments
Add CommentThe photo caption is misleading. A monoculture field laden with synthetic chemicals is by no means a "healthy field." High yielding and efficient, but far from healthy as an ecologically balanced and sustainable environment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPure speculation based on assumptions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article should not even should have been published as such. Do not make statements that rural water contaminated by pesticides are a possible cause of Parkinson's.
Yes, there is language in the article that notes the weakness of this study, but the headline and the general air of the article has reached the conclusion that this is the cause.
I suspect that the researchers threw in some nice color charts, graphs, and GIS maps to make this look convincing and credible.
Look how many years were spent in this study and they did not bother to actually test the waters for contaminants?
Reckless.
I no doubt that exposure to such chemicals over time has detrimental effects of those living in rural areas. It just needs to be shown using actual testing than speculation.
I worked in drinking water for over 16 years. We, in the field, would refer to those who lived in rural areas as "cancer-proof". This was due to the fact that politicians wrote water standards to exempt small rural water systems that serve less than 10,000 from regulations that were implemented to protect the health of the public from carcinogens and other contaminants in their drinking water supply. Obvuiously, they must be "cancer-proof" because they do not need to meet the same regs as larger systems.
I always manage to misspell one word in my comments, despite proofreading. My apologies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess it beats force-feeding lab rats high doses over a short period of time in the effort to simulate low doses over a long period.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn other news, nothing means anything, and black is white.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that the article is very clear that it is not conclusive. "bolsters theory" is not the same as "proves theory" though I would prefer "bolsters hypothesis" as it hasn't been proven yet and the science haters seem to get a lot of mileage out of, "it's only a theory!" It does point to a target for further research. Science is often about these incremental steps towards understanding rather than the news worthy eureka moments we always hear about. Also, please keep in mind that these are news articles not peer reviewed scientific papers. They aren't meant to prove anything only inform the reader of what is happening in the world of science. If you want proof, go to the source, or better yet, conduct the experiment yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy mother was born in Cotton Plant Arkansas in 1906. In her mid twenties she developed Parkinsons desease and suffered with it for over fifty years. Your article, therefore was of interest because she was raised on a farm and . . . In 1947 she was the subject of a filmed (experimental)operation performed by doctors in Prince George's County Maryland.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are spell checker add ons to most web browsers if you search for one. They either work in the background or you right click and Check Spelling. Search spell check web browser in your favorite search engine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDespite the lack of "proof", the scientist would be grotesquely unethical if they did not report the link that shows a possible harm to humans. Sure, no causal relationship has been proven, but what if they didn't report the link and then found proof 50 years from now. You would be frothing at the mouth because they didn't report something when they had a mere suspicion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn Texas, a pest control company was using an insecticide that was later found in the milk of breast feeding mothers. The company owner, one Tom Delay I believe, went ballistic when it was shelved saying there was no proof it did any harm. Would you feed your infant milk you know had traces of pesticides in it?
My parents own a ranch where we used a very affective herbicide for years. The herbicide, Shell 2,4,5-T, I believe a component of agent orange, was outlawed years ago. We have no idea what the previous land owner(s) sprayed. My father swears the water from our well is clean, but I have refused to drink it for over 30 years. Not because of any possible scientific link, but because I'm not an idiot.
Relative to Sparcboy's comments above and since the methodology of the article above has already been covered, I would tend to agree with your father regarding your well water. One needs to know what alternative source(s) you use for your water; I would be suspect of the source of most bottled water and its plastic packaging. Phthalates seem to be a real concern today that is not being very well addressed. Municipal water systems do very little to treat all the antibiotics and birth control hormones we flush down our toilets everywhere and release into our rivers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI too have lived on a Montana ranch for 70 yrs and have been drenched in many now-banned chemicals for days at a time. We welcomed the arrival of DDT, Chlordane, Dieldrin, Heptochlor, organophosphates, 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T and many more and sprayed DDT in swimsuits with high pressure hoses above cattle chutes (1950's) or on crops with open tractors and broadcast sprayers. All of these practices now would be heresy with new standards, PPE and safer chemicals. Many of those around me through that time have since died from many causes, mostly from smoking related cancers, heart problems and accidents; I don't recall any neurological events among them.
I think you should be more concerned about seat belt use, crime rates and breath on an airliner than your father's well water. The time is coming when having well water will be many people's greatest concern; we continue to act like ground water is infinite.
I think we have huge problems ahead with our water supplies, food production and all its related chemistry. Not using chemicals is not a viable option if we are going to feed everyone; perhaps we need to revisit population control. Nobody like how they did it but China is the only country to really address the basic problem!
It is my understanding that Parkinson's is not considered heritable except when it occurs in young people. (I have no idea of the accuracy of this statement but have read it numerous places over the years and have no citations for it.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy mother and her sister both had Parkinson's and were raised on a farm in rural Pennsylvania in the 1920s. They had two siblings, neither of whom has Parkinson's. My mother was the only one among the four of her generation to live on a farm through adulthood; my mother's four children all grew up drinking well water and so far none f us has Parkinson's. Two of us, however, have developed motor neurone diseases and three of us have AD/HD.
None of this constitutes scientific study, of course. However, I wonder if anyone, anywhere, is compiling these anecdotal accounts and making anything of them?
Hey mtrancher I'm pretty sure some of your friends that died from "Smoking Cancer" got it from dealing with all those pesticides. Most of them are labeled as cancer causing.
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