Pesticides & Parkinson's

[Dr Mordrid]

Link....

Family study bolsters link between pesticides and Parkinson's

For the first time, the association between Parkinson’s disease and exposure to pesticides has been shown in patients with the neurological disorder compared with their unaffected relatives, according to a study in the online open access journal BMC Neurology.

Parkinson’s disease is a common neurological disorder affecting about 1 million people in the USA. The disorder typically develops in later life resulting in symptoms such as tremors and muscle rigidity

Although variations in several genes have been identified that contribute to the disease, these rare genetic defects account for a small proportion of the overall prevalence of the disorder.

The majority of Parkinson’s disease cases are thought to be due to an interaction between genetic and environmental factors.

“Previous studies have shown that individuals with Parkinson’s disease are over twice as likely to report being exposed to pesticides as unaffected individuals” says the study’s lead author, Dana Hancock, “but few studies have looked at this association in people from the same family or have assessed associations between specific classes of pesticides and Parkinson’s disease.”

The study of related individuals who share environmental and genetic backgrounds that might contribute to Parkinson’s disease enables researchers to identify specific differences in exposures between individuals with and without the disease. The research team from Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Morris K. Udall Parkinson Disease Research Center of Excellence (Miami, FL, USA) recruited 319 patients and over 200 relatives. They used telephone interviews to obtain histories of pesticide exposure, living or working on a farm, and well-water drinking.

The authors detected an association between pesticide use and Parkinson’s disease. Among these, the strongest were between the disorder and use of herbicides and insecticides, such as organochlorides and organophosphates. No association was found between Parkinson’s disease and well-water drinking or living or working on a farm, which are two commonly used proxies for pesticide exposures.

Many studies have supported pesticides as a risk factor for PD, but “biological evidence is presently insufficient to conclude that pesticide exposure causes PD”, says Hancock. “Further investigation of these specific pesticides and others may lead to identification of pertinent biological pathways influencing PD development.” In addition future genetic studies of Parkinson’s disease should consider the influence of pesticides, since exposure to pesticides may provide a trigger for the disease in genetically predisposed individuals.

Source: BioMed Central

[Brian Ellis]

I have always been alarmed at the massive use of methyl bromide on fruit (esp. tomatoes and strawberries), as a grain fumigant and as a soil fumigant. The 1991 baseline usage in the USA alone was 25,500 tonnes and the stuff is a gas, so imagine the volume. Massive use was made in the Orient to prevent the rice weevil from destroying crops. I guestimate 1991 worldwide use at 100,000 tonnes.

How did it work: moist living matter has free hydroxyl and hydrogen radicals which react with the MeBr:
H2O > H + OH
CH3Br + H> CH4 + Br
producing a free bromine radical which is extremely reactive to all organic material, forming all sorts of bromine compounds.

Bromine compounds are the basis of most sedatives and, by definition, all sedatives have an effect on the CNS. Some of them are cumulative. Most organic bromides are insoluble (or nearly so) in water, so washing your fruit is not going to make it any safer.

Most countries have now stopped using MeBr because it is controlled under the Montreal Protocol, being a nasty ozone-depleter. Safer substitutes have been found. However, one country applied for and obtained an essential uses exemption for use on fruit. Guess where? The USA. The 2008 usage was set at 25% of the 1991 baseline, so your fruit still contains organobromides.

You have no idea of the intensive lobbying that went on to continue the use of MeBr, yet it has been almost eliminated elsewhere.

Whether the small quantities that remain in the fruit has any long-term epidemiological neuropathic effects is unknown, but there is a risk of cumulative damage to those who eat a lot of fruit (other that tomatoes and strawberries, peppers, cucunbers, squash, eggplants etc. are also treated with MeBr). What really gets me, though, is that the essential use exemption also applies to turf and ornamental plants, as though they were "essential".

Incidentally, MeBr has a very low Permitted Exposure Level of 15 ppm for workers as dictated by OSHA. This is much lower than some suspected carcinogenic halocarbons, so the danger of direct exposure is not unknown. It is the indirect exposure that is the big X.

I cite MeBr as only one example of irrational pesticide use because I happen to know a little more about it than most of the others, but there are hundreds of others containing or not halocarbons. Lannate is widely used in this country: it is among the most toxic pesticides, yet I've seen farmers spraying it with no personal protective equipment or, at the most, with one of those 3-M white dust masks, as if that would give them any protection.

Rider: I'm not against the use of pesticides, within reason. I use them on my fruit trees (Mediterranean fruit fly in citrus and moth larvae eating into drupes), but I try to keep their use to a minimum. The only pesticide I use for vegetables are metaldehyde (slugs and snails) once in the Spring and a fungicide on tomatoes/peppers/aubergines about 2 weeks before harvesting starts. I mention this in case you think I'm an "organic" produce nut.

[Dr Mordrid]

We never used MeBr on our fruits, but then we made it a point to put baby mantids (ie: praying mantis) in our trees and ladybugs on many other crops. Talk about taking out anything that moves

Those crops with a larvae problem got a spray of BT (bacteria sports toxic to worms) and/or a tobacco (nicotine being the active ingredient) & tomato leaf based spray my father cooked up himself. Worked great and cost almost nothing.

[Umfriend]

Those crops with a larvae problem got a spray of BT (bacteria sports toxic to worms) and/or a tobacco (nicotine being the active ingredient)

So you're like, uh, addicted to tomatoes right now?

[Dr Mordrid]

The tobacco/tomato leaf spray dries to a powder and washes off easily, so the nicotine never makes it into the fruit. 'tis a very old farming trick in the rural US.

A commercial version using 40% Nicotine Sulfate is still sold under at least two labels I'm aware of and is used by many organic gardeners.

Liqufied tomato leaves steeped in a few liters of water has been used for a LONG time and is very effective.

Other effective organic pesticides are made similar to the tomato leaf version but using onions, garlic, mint or a mix of several of the above. Garlic is particularly effective sprayed on ponds to control mosquitoes.

Boric acid (Borax) kills cockroaches, ants, ticks, fleas, termites and many other insects virtually on contact. It's also a fungicide capable of killing molds and fungus including black mold (the latter in combination with H202).