The Clue to Unlocking Parkinson’s May Be All Around Us

Dorsey and Okun, who between them have published more than 1,000 papers and cared for more than 10,000 people with Parkinson’s, describe the disease as a pandemic, but one caused not by a virus but by “a new class of ‘vectors,’ including pesticides in our food, industrial solvents in our water and pollution in our air.”

Meanwhile, there is a growing mountain of imperfect but troubling evidence. Just this year, a study found that living within a mile of a golf course more than doubles a person’s odds of developing Parkinson’s. One theory is that it is because golf courses use pesticides.

Paradoxically, most of the paraquat used in the United States is manufactured in Britain and China — where it cannot legally be used. But it’s fine to produce it there and sell it to America, where regulation is more lax.

I asked Syngenta (a Swiss business that is the heir of the company that invented paraquat) if the company uses paraquat on its own grounds — but then I realized that it can’t, because its headquarters are in Switzerland, which bans the chemical; its paraquat manufacturing base is in Britain, which also bans its use; and its ultimate owner is a company in China, where paraquat is likewise banned.

Essentially, Europe bans substances it harbors doubts about, while the United States tends to allow substances unless there is solid evidence of harm. That may have something to do with the millions that companies spend lobbying ($77 million last year by the chemical industry alone) and donating to political candidates.

Full Story