AAN: Three Pesticides Linked to Risk for Parkinson Disease

MONDAY, March 11, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Three pesticides (lindane, simazine, and atrazine) are associated with Parkinson disease (PD) in the Rocky Mountains/Great Plains region of the United States, according to a study scheduled for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, to be held from April 13 to 18 in Denver.

Alexia Lapadat, Ph.D., from Amherst College in Massachusetts, and colleagues conducted a nationwide, population-based, geographical study of 21,549,400 Medicare beneficiaries and 465 pesticides to examine the role of pesticides on PD risk. The nationwide association for 65 pesticides was mapped using multiscale geographic weighted regression; pesticides were classified according to the strength and ratio of positive-to-negative regression coefficients.

The researchers identified 14 pesticides that were strongly associated with PD in the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains region. The strongest relationship with PD was seen for simazine, lindane, and atrazine. The relative risk for PD was 36 percent higher for counties with the highest versus the lowest decile of simazine application. The relative risks were 31 and 25 percent higher for counties in the top versus the lowest decile of application of atrazine and lindane, respectively. A modest dose-response relationship was seen between PD risk and all three pesticides.

"It's concerning that previous studies have identified other pesticides and herbicides as potential risk factors for Parkinson's, and there are hundreds of pesticides that have not yet been studied for any relationship to the disease," coauthor Brittany Krzyzanowski, Ph.D., from Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, said in a statement.

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