[reverett123]

I ran across a state by state table of PD rates and got out my crayons. The attached map shows one's chance of having PD with orange as high, green medium, blue low. I find it very interesting that there is a pattern.

[Teretxu]

Thanks, Everett! It is a very interesting pattern, too. Why would some geographically similar neighbour states (say Arizona and New Mexico) have such different incidence rates? Could it be the age of the population?

[Daffy Duck]

In the bottom left hand corner of the orange blob is Nebraska which has the world's highest ever recorded prevalence of Parkinson's Disease :



The U.S.A. is the country with the world's highest prevalence.

[reverett123]

One thing that I see from this is support for the involvement of bacterial endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide (LPS). It is a major component of the dust associated with grain production and that is a major crop for the area shown as highest.

[lou_lou]

dear reverett,
this was very good - thank you!
I have read many times about the farmers who become toxic with the chemicals they use to save the crops so they can have a good return on their
toxic crops.
also the upper midwest region is a cheese and milk producing region there again are the dairy farms / farmers dealing with antibiotics and growth hormones for their cattle or milking cows, and they drink and eat what they produce.

as for the land it seems the amount would double, for the crops and the drugs make twice the [coincidense of PD higher]
I wonder if the cancer rates are higher as well?
thank you!

[vlhperry]

The PD Detective. I live in Minnesota and grew up in Michigan. Excellant work. Keep thinking outside the box the politicians, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, researchers, and professional advocates have been keeping us in.

Vicky

[vlhperry]

The following three pesticides are used on Minnesota farms.

Atrazine
achetochlor
chlorprifos

The last is banned in Europe and many other states. It is known to cause damage to the nervous system. California, Florida and more southern states have a longer growing season. Could it be possible Minnesota and other Northern States and Canada are adding a toxin to Farms to increase the time it takes to havest crops. Also soy beans, a huge crop in Minnesota is being pushed as the answer to all problems. So many questions, so little time.

Vicky

[chasmo]

my MDS calls the San Joaquin valley ,"PD Valley". The last time I was in the office, I met a packing plant manager for Sunkist, who had had symptoms for 5 years and had just been diagnosed.
The PD statewide survery should be most illustrative, if they ever will get it done.
It would be interesting to collect statistics on a company basis to see if there were "hot spots" within the company.

You know I just remembered a show I did outside of EDen Prarrie, MN in 1984. I was there for month. Several of the locals thought they had Lyme disease. It is interesting how this all (sort of) ties together.


Charlie

[reverett123]

The abstract tacked on to the end of this makes it clear that grass seed workers get a heck of an exposure to LPS. I mean, the safety limit is 50 units but they found levels up to 274,000?

Now back to the map- I took a look at agricultural production for 1995 on a state by state crop by crop basis. Corn, wheat, and such didn't show any thing special. But then I came to hay. As anyone who has been around farming knows, handling hay is dusty work.

I compared the list of top hay producers with the list of top PD rates and "bingo!"

The top PD states and their ranking among hay producers:
1) ND/5th
2) SD/1st
3) NE/4th
4) MN/8th
5) IA/13th
Of the top 25 PD states, 17 were on the top 25 hay producing states. Of the eight "odd balls", half were big producers of corn or soybeans.

This doesn't mean that agricultural dust is the cause of PD. But it strong evidence of a role for LPS which is also the primary component of ordinary house dust. This is one of the primary leads that Dr. Frobert and I have been following and it ties in to an even more tantalizing one.

A German researcher named Braak has clearly shown that the first places that the marker of PD known as the Lewy body shows up are 1) the olfactory bulb and 2) the nerves of the stomach wall. From those two points there is a trail of Lewy bodies like little footprints, marching into the brain and eventually ending up in the substantia nigra. If you consider the fact that dust hits the sinus cavity and olfactory areas and then is carried via "post nasal drip" into the stomach, it begins to make sense.

There are a dozen other factors that individualize each of our manifestations, but this is one of the main ones.



1: Occup Environ Med. 2006 Jan;63(1):59-67.

Agricultural seed dust as a potential cause of organic dust toxic syndrome.

Smit LA, Wouters IM, Hobo MM, Eduard W, Doekes G, Heederik D.

Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Division of Environmental and
Occupational Health, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
L.Smit@iras.uu.nl

AIMS: Episodes of serious work related health problems resembling organic dust
toxic syndrome (ODTS) in workers of a grass seed quality inspection laboratory
prompted the authors to study personal endotoxin exposure levels in this
facility and in the agricultural seed processing industry. In addition,
microbial and inflammatory characteristics of agricultural seeds were studied.
METHODS: The authors assessed inhalable dust and endotoxin levels in 101 samples
from 57 workers in grass, cereal, and vegetable seed plants who were handling
mainly grass seeds as bulk product, and horticulture seeds in smaller
quantities. Additionally, real-time dust exposure was measured using a DataRAM
monitor in 12 grass seed workers to obtain more information on exposure patterns
during specific tasks. Endotoxin concentrations in seed extracts were determined
by LAL assay and seed samples were analysed by scanning electron microscopy.
Release of inflammatory cytokines was measured in supernatants of whole blood
samples stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or agricultural seed extracts
in a human whole blood assay (WBA). RESULTS: Endotoxin concentrations in
personal samples were high (geometric mean 1800 EU/m3), particularly in the
grass seed quality inspection lab where endotoxin levels up to 274 000 EU/m3
were measured. The recommended health based endotoxin exposure limit of 50 EU/m3
was amply exceeded in almost all personal samples. Job tasks dumping and mixing
were associated with highest dust and endotoxin exposures, which was confirmed
by real-time measurements. Microbial infestation was found in almost all seed
samples. WBA results showed that most seed extracts were capable of inducing a
pronounced dose dependent cytokine release. CONCLUSIONS: Workers handling grass,
cereal, or vegetable seeds are at risk of exposure to high levels of endotoxin
containing seed dust. Occupational exposure to inhalable agricultural seed dust
can induce inflammatory responses, and is a potential cause of ODTS.

PMID: 16361407 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[DaleD]

I am not surprised that Nebraska leads the nation in cases of pd per capita. My maternal grandmother I am sure had it. She died some 30+ years ago but had fairly severe tremors in her last years. I grew up and spent my first 35 years there. And my father, who has lived his entire post teens life there was just diagnosed this past year at the age of 86.

As a teen, I had a chance to work as a flagger for an aerial spraying company but didnt take it. I often wonder if I had, would I have had an even earlier onset. Many of my friends stood at the end of the field to show the pilot where he had already sprayed the insecticde or pestivide. The plane would fly directly over them and they would move down field the width that the spray covered. They would come home wet with the chemicals.