Asked about the future of Parkinson’s disease in the US, Dr Ray Dorsey said: “We are on the verge of a very, very big iceberg.”
Dorsey, a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center and author of Ending Parkinson’s Disease, believes a Parkinson’s epidemic is imminent. Parkinson’s is already the fastest growing neurological disorder in the world; in the U.S., the number of people with Parkinson’s has increased by 35% over the past ten years, Dorsey says, and “We think it will double again over the next 25 years.”
Most cases of Parkinson’s disease are considered idiopathic – they have a clear cause. Yet researchers increasingly believe that one factor is environmental exposure to trichlorethylene (TCE), a chemical compound used in industrial degreasing, dry cleaning and household products, such as shoe polish and carpet cleaners.
TCE is a carcinogen linked to renal cell carcinoma, cancer of the cervix, liver, bile ducts, lymphatic system and breast tissue in men, and heart disorders in the fetus, among others. The known association with Parkinson’s can often be overlooked due to the fact that exposure to TCE can be decades before the onset of the disease. While some people who are exposed can get sick quickly, others can work most of their lives unconsciously on infected sites or get Parkinson’s symptoms before them. Visitors who are near National Priorities List Superfund sites (places known to be contaminated with hazardous substances such as TCE) are at exceptional risk for exposure. Santa Clara Province, California, for example, houses not only Silicon Valley, but also 23 super-fund sites – the highest concentration in the country. Google Quad Campus is on top of one such site; The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found during several months in 2012 and 2013 that employees of the company inhale unsafe levels of TCE in the form of toxic fumes rising from the ground under their offices.
While some countries strongly regulate TCE (its use is banned without special authorization in the EU), the EPA estimates that 250 million pounds of the chemical is still used annually in the US, and that more than 2 million pounds of it in 2017 in the environment from industrial sites, polluting air, soil and water. It is currently estimated that TCE is present in approximately 30% of U.S. groundwater (the nonprofit environmental working group has compiled its own map of TCE-contaminated water sites nationwide), although researcher Briana de Miranda, a toxicologist who studies TCE at the University of Alabama at the Birmingham School of Medicine, says: “We underestimate how many people are exposed to TCE. This is probably much more than we guess. ”
According to EPA regulations, it is considered “safe” for TCE to be present in drinking water with a maximum concentration of five parts per billion. In severe cases of pollution, such as those that occurred in Camp Lejeune, a marine corps in North Carolina, between the 1950s and the late 1980s, people are thought to be exposed to up to 3,400 times the level of pollution allowed by safety standards. A memorial site known as ‘Babyland’ honors the children of military personnel who died after they or their pregnant mothers were exposed to TCE-contaminated water while living at the base.
While De Miranda says researchers do not believe that low concentrations of TCE in drinking water are specific enough to cause disease, Dorsey does not think it is too much to say that American groundwater can give people the disease of Parkinson’s. “Several studies have linked good water to Parkinson’s disease, and it’s not just TCE; it can also be pesticides like paraquat,” he says, referring to a deadly herbicide that the US still uses, despite the fact that in the EU has been phased out. Brazil and China.
Using activated carbon filtration devices (such as Brita filters) can help reduce TCE in drinking water, but it can be more difficult to bathe in polluted water, as well as inhaling fumes from toxic groundwater and soil.
De Miranda says government policy and effective intervention are crucial when it comes to testing, monitoring and repairing TCE-infected sites, and that it is important to raise awareness of the TCE’s role in the rising rates of Parkinson’s increase. The failure to address the issue will not only continue to adversely affect human health, but also exacerbate the home care crisis for adults, exacerbating 50 million Americans responsible for caring for sick loved ones, as Parkinson’s is characterized by slow, progressive degeneration. no cure.
In May 2020, Minnesota becomes the first state to ban TCE; New York set its example last December, as did more states, especially as federal action on the issue deteriorated. Since the adverse health effects of TCE have been documented in the Journal of the American Medical Association since 1932, the United States is past the time to stop using them and to better protect citizens from dangerous chemicals that endanger lives. set.