Camp Lejeune water contamination and PD.
I arrived at Camp Lejeune, NC in Oct. 1981. I was assigned to the 2d Marine Regiment. This was my home from Oct. 1981 to Jun. 1984. I heard about the contaminated water (http://www.marines.mil/clwater) sometime in 1981, but I paid little attention to the things I could not control for myself at the time.
I was further exposed to one of these contaminants (Trichloroethylene) while working as a civilian at the Naval Air Warfare Center Indpls and Hughes Aircraft Indpls from 1987 to around 1996.

Dr. Samuel Goldman (Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale, California) looked at 99 male twins, one of which had Parkinson's disease
(http://www.thepi.org/index.php?src=n...icles&refno=14). Apparently, the significant "difference" between each of these twins was exposure to "trichloroethylene" (TEC). The twin exposed to TCE has Parkinson's, while the twin NOT exposed to TCE does not have Parkinson's.

Dr. D.M. Gash et.al. (University of Kentucky) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18157908) has found a link between chronic exposure to TCE and Parkinson's disease. This study looked at 30 workers at one industrial setting. It found that the three workers subjected to chronic inhalation and dermal exposure to TCE had Parkinson's disease, while coworkers more distant from the exposure displayed features of parkinsonism (including significant motor slowing).

YOUR opinion--how much more evidence do we need to establish "cause and effect"?
Thank YOU.

When I looked this up I found that it had been used in childbirth in millions of women too......... do a search and see for your self what this chemical can do. Implicated in a vast range of things, and neurotoxic by the sound of it.....
If you had children prior to early 80's maybe this is something you were given.....

Has also been mentioned in relationship to ALS and parkinsonism in gulf war vets.....

yes - i have often wondered about my mother being totally knocked out on gas during my birth (late 50s). Birthing is such a powerful transition - I would add that this was also the time when breastfeeding practices changed as well . Breastmilk contains more DHA than any other food according to doc Perlmutter and is amongst the most fundamental of building blocks (also serves as epigenetic transmitter) to the brain - no DHA in infant formulas perhaps this change contributed to heralding the advent of early onset pd
md

Thanks for your replies. What I'm really interested in is your opinion on exactly how much evidence we need (as PWPs) to conclude that TCE can cause PD. Many thanks.

I am still working very hard on my case(s). I'll keep you all posted as things develop.

Good luck with assembling your case. What ever Pd eventually turns out to be, you can be sure it is a spectrum of disorders with many causes. This seems to be a very good candidate, given what looks like a pretty clear 'cause and effect' process. As always though the burden of proof is with the 'victim', a word I use with caution, because of the psycho-emotive connotations it has in medicine. Let's hope that the people who do the research are unassailable and strong-minded.

Lindy