Name your poison...alarming new toxic hotspots
 

I ran across this when researching for a reply I was writing for the BBB thread, but thought the study deserved its own special place given that is the largest PD epidemiology in the US ever completed...

Dating from last month, please see these alarming results from a longitudinal study (2000-2005) of later onset PD which is key because it is thought that toxins may play a bigger role than genetics in this group. Particularly disturbing is the map and results published by Neuroepidemiology and shared via Washington University that shows an extremely high prevalence of PD in the Midwest and Northeast. Either we have some very strong correlations here with pesticides and air pollution, or proximity to Canada is extremely toxic :wink:

Ron and Rick have amassed an amazing amount of research to support their very sound theories on contributing factors of PD. I have my fledgling idea here to add to the mix as it relates to the BBB.

One of my pet theories has been MMT, the anti-knock additive added to replace lead in gasoline, produced by the Afton Corp. The main atom and the middle "M" stands for Manganese. Those of us who know Parkinsonism know that inhaled Manganese results in a degenerative neuro disorder, that although easily arrested in very early states, looks exactly like Idiopathic Parkinson's once motor symptoms emerge and ends as an irreversible disorder. Here are the interesting pieces to the puzzle (facts and research)- please forgive, though I have research on all this, I am working on organizing so don't have all the citations in order.

-MMT has been used in gasoline since 1974; it is emitted from tailpipes as a fine particulate and accumulates in ground around us.
-Once inhaled, manganese readily enters the brain through the olfactory vagus supporting Braak's theory that PD may begin there.
-MMT readily crosses the BBB with no requisite need for increased permeability; studies show that it is transported by a calcium channel and that it is a slow process.
-Children have more permeable BBB due to nascent formation; while the elderly and people with neurological disorders have increased permeability.
-The EPA warns that Manganese is a neurotoxin and they do not know long term effects of chronic exposure in air pollution on humans; they instead defer to the Afton Corp. requesting that they complete some research.
-Research in highly polluted areas like Mexico City and in a very specific population of Italian citizens living downwind from a Manganese Plant, show clear motor signs, albeit mild, of Parkinsonism- Mainly slowness in performing finger tapping and alternating movements.

Further neurological findings from a 2008 study in the Repiratory Journal:

Traffic-related air pollution, basically urban outdoor pollution, is a global public health problem. Cardiorespiratory effects and mechanisms have been fully investigated. In contrast, little is known regarding neurological effects, with only some preliminary evidence. In rats, ultrafine carbon particles have been found in the olfactory bulb and the cerebrum and cerebellum after inhalation exposure 6; this finding has been reproduced more recently with manganese particles directly translocated to the olfactory nerve from the nose to the brain 7.

In one study, dogs living in a highly polluted region in Mexico City (Mexico) had an increase in brain inflammation compared with animals living in a less polluted area 8. The brain tissue of animals from Mexico City had higher levels of nuclear factor-{kappa}B activation and nitric oxide production, as well as the principal pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-{alpha}, compared with the animals from the nonpolluted area 9. In a study on human autopsies in Mexico City, exposure to severe air pollution has been associated with increased levels of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and accumulation of the 42-amino-acid form of β-amyloid, a cause of neuronal dysfunction 10.

Organizations like the Physicians for Social Responsibility are calling for a withdrawal of the license to use this noxious stuff and several University research centres are studying MMT toxicology in earnest. The EPA still kindly asks the Afton Corp to produce research on chronic exposure.

Well, I could go on with research that at best could be circumstantial evidence in a court trial, but you get the picture. In 1974, I was one of those children with an unformed BBB.

Laura

Mmt
 

Hi Laura,
I agree with your ideas, you probably know that welders have a very high incidence of pD, due to manganese in their welding rods. This is released to the air due to the very high temperatures, and breathed in. The US MIdwest is a hot spot, and I worked in Chicago for 2 years, then was diagnosed with PD 4 years later.
The amount of MMT (Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese tricarbonyl) in gasoline seems very high. 1/32 grams per gallon of manganese, a known neurotoxin. How companies like Afton (formerly Ethyl Corp) get approval for such compounds I don't know. (I wonder why they changed their name!!!).
I invented an organotin class of compounds, and got FDA and other countries approvals to use it in food packaging PVC applications. We had to provide masses of information over several years before we got approval. We went overboard to prove it was safe.
Ron

That is really interesting. My dad owned a Pennzoil Station & I pumped gas as a teenager. Gas fumes have always made me feel very sick (My brother, who worked there also (and was a welder) has PD, my dad has ET.. with more PD symptoms emerging at 84years of age . But, his father had PD and we seem to have a genetic disposition to it,also.

I'm not in left field
 

I'm glad to hear a scientist concur with me that it is at least plausible for some of us. I started to follow this trail when reading of Manganism in welders- some of this research, on the prevalence at least, has been dismissed by some (including my former doctor). At first I thought, MMT? It's in our air, with so many of us breathing it, surely more people would be afflicted? In looking at that new study in the US on PD concentrations, it is interesting to note that a large pocket of PD cases are distributed all along the Canadian border in the Northeast on a key waterway between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic or it may have to do with wind patterns. Though I don' think this study tells us with PD much of anything new; I'm hoping it will generate further studies on what is doing the damage and how it is happening.

In the meanwhile, I'm turning more attention to pestering our politicians to ban MMT until Afton steps up and starts some longitudinal studies.
We read a lot on the pesticide connection but little, if anything, has ended up in the mainstream press on this. It is funny about the name change. Ethyl sounds so cold and , while Afton, for me at least, brings to mind a Constable painting- much more warm and pastoral. It's all about image.

You were a chemist in Chicago for a few years? Can name any particularly risky chemical or metal exposures you had? I am a person who thrives on clarity and one of the most frustrating things I find with this disease is not knowing how I arrived at this place. I hope they start looking at genetics and environment together very soon; all these isolated research projects won't take us very far until they start trying to fit pieces together.

Laura

Sound all too familiar
 

Hi,

Just wanted to say that I have a similar familial backrgound. My father has a very clear Essential Tremor, and I started out that way. We learned his grandfather had a mysterious untreated tremor as well. Bugs me that I still don't qualify to participate in genetic research- we need to have a direct relative with PD to qualify according to my MDS.

Also, if you haven't seen it, there is an interesting article on Essential Tremor and how it may be a form of Parkinsonism. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/health/08brod.html

I think our member Vicky (VhlPerry) has a lot of info on genetics if you are interested in taking part in research.

Laura

Heavy metals
 

Hi Laura,
You asked which risky chemicals I handled in Chicago.
"Can name any particularly risky chemical or metal exposures you had?"
I went there as Deputy Director of Research at an AKZO Nobel research centre in McCook, Chicago. I was office bound and did not do any work in the laboratories myself. However, in my early days with AKZO,(9th largest chemicals company worldwide), I handled all sorts of nasties.
In my first days as a research chemist, I specialised in organotin compounds, which have a wide range of toxicities. Some of the organotins I made found application in antifouling paints for ships, since they were so toxic!! They kill the barnacles as soon as they try to attach to the ship's hull. I also worked with triethyl aluminium as a Ziegler catalyst for polymerisation. Aluminium has been associated with Alzheimers. Then I worked on cadmium compounds to stabilise PVC against the high processing temperatures. Lead compounds were another class of PVC stabilisers that I did research on. The company wanted to build a new plant making organophosphorus compounds as flame retardants, so I did that work also. You may have seen some organophosphates have been used as sheep dips to kill insects and bacteria, and has been implicated in PD.
Then the company took out a licence on organolead compounds from the TNO Institute in Holland. You can guess who was sent out to check every process before we paid the licence fees. These were really toxic too.
Then my employers had made a lot of money from a new process I had developed, and as a reward, they let me go back to university on full pay to get my Ph.D. My project involved making bis(trimethylsilyl) mercury!! This is a very unstable (and toxic) compound which very easily splits to form free radicals!! I had to deliberately use it to create free radicals and observe their reactions!!
Fortunately, when I returned with my Ph.D I was promoted to research Manager, and could hide in the office away from the lab.
So if anyone was destined to get PD it was me!!
By the way, "ethyl" is not such as strange name for the Ethyl Corp. They were called that because they manufactured tetraethyl lead, the first antiknock for gasoline.
Ron