U.S. researchers reported they found new links between pesticides and Parkinson’s disease, although they said they only found an increased risk in people using these chemicals as part of their work.
Three compounds-an ingredient in the herbicide Agent Orange, the herbicide paraquat and the insecticide permethrin, were related to more than triple the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, researchers found.
The study, published in Archives of Neurology, supports the growing evidence linking the incurable brain condition and usually lethal pesticides and herbicides.
“Because little research has identified specific pesticides, we studied eight pesticides with high potential for neurotoxicity as laboratory results,” said team Dr. Caroline Tanner of the Parkinson Institute in Sunnyvale, California.
They studied 519 people with Parkinson’s disease and 511 controls without the disease.
“We examined the risk for Parkinson occupations (agriculture, education, healthcare, mining) and toxic exposure (to solvents and pesticides) associated with Parkinson’s,” the researchers wrote.
“The work in agriculture, education, medical care (…) was not linked with an increased risk Parkinson,” the team.
Pesticide use by the occupation was linked to nearly 80 percent higher risk of Parkinson’s. “More and more evidence suggests a causal association between pesticides and Parkinson’s disease, the researchers said.
In July, a panel of the Institute of Medicine, United States, found relations between exposure to Agent Orange and Parkinson’s and heart disease.
Meanwhile, Tanner team’s report is the first to reveal a link from the neurodegenerative condition with permethrin, a synthetic chemical widely used to kill germs and as a repellent.
Tags: heart disease, herbicide Agent Orange, herbicide paraquat, insecticide permethrin, neurodegenerative, neurotoxicity, Parkinson's disease, Pesticides, toxic exposure