These guys get it
 

1. Toxicol Pathol. 2008;36(2):289-310. Epub 2008 Mar 18.

Long-term air pollution exposure is associated with neuroinflammation, an altered
innate immune response, disruption of the blood-brain barrier, ultrafine
particulate deposition, and accumulation of amyloid beta-42 and alpha-synuclein
in children and young adults.

Calderón-Garcidueñas L, Solt AC, Henríquez-Roldán C, Torres-Jardón R, Nuse B,
Herritt L, Villarreal-Calderón R, Osnaya N, Stone I, García R, Brooks DM,
González-Maciel A, Reynoso-Robles R, Delgado-Chávez R, Reed W.

Instituto Nacional de Pediatría, Mexico City, Mexico.
lilian.calderon-garciduenas@umontana.edu

Air pollution is a serious environmental problem. We investigated whether
residency in cities with high air pollution is associated with
neuroinflammation/neurodegeneration in healthy children and young adults who died
suddenly. We measured mRNA cyclooxygenase-2, interleukin-1beta, and CD14 in
target brain regions from low (n = 12) or highly exposed residents (n = 35) aged
25.1 +/- 1.5 years. Upregulation of cyclooxygenase-2, interleukin-1beta, and CD14
in olfactory bulb, frontal cortex, substantia nigrae and vagus nerves; disruption
of the blood-brain barrier; endothelial activation, oxidative stress, and
inflammatory cell trafficking were seen in highly exposed subjects. Amyloid
beta42 (Abeta42) immunoreactivity was observed in 58.8% of apolipoprotein E
(APOE) 3/3 < 25 y, and 100% of the APOE 4 subjects, whereas alpha-synuclein was
seen in 23.5% of < 25 y subjects. Particulate material (PM) was seen in olfactory
bulb neurons, and PM < 100 nm were observed in intraluminal erythrocytes from
lung, frontal, and trigeminal ganglia capillaries. Exposure to air pollution
causes neuroinflammation, an altered brain innate immune response, and
accumulation of Abeta42 and alpha-synuclein starting in childhood. Exposure to
air pollution should be considered a risk factor for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
diseases, and carriers of the APOE 4 allele could have a higher risk of
developing Alzheimer's disease if they reside in a polluted environment.


PMID: 18349428 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

yeah they do
 

I grew up just over a few hills from a line of steel mills that led to Pittsburgh. The sky was not blue very often.

paula

I've been poisoned, too!
 

I grew u p traveling all over the U.S. (my dad was a welder on gas lines). While living in Californiai at age 12, we kids lived smack dab in the middle of olive groves in a group of rental houses intended for itinerant farmers

It was a common practice for us kids to play in t he cloudss that the airplanes sprayed over the olive trees (DDT). Do I think I know why I have PD? Bingo! DDT kills!
Peg

MMT must be banned
 

This is exactly what I began to think was the culprit for me. I am nearly convinced it is the MMT, a gasoline additive with manganese as its base that replaced lead. It has been around for years now. The Afton Corp. manufactures it. The EPA has "suggested" that they provide studies on health effects, but they go on unabated. Canada, I believe, has banned it. The Physician's Committee on Responsible Medicine recommends banning it until public health studies are done.

From researchers at U of California Santa Cruz:

Manganese Exposure May Speed the Appearance of Parkinson's Symptoms...

Sadly, there are many more articles like the one Rick cites linking MMT and air pollution to neurodegenerative diseases.

-Laura

DDT for me, weekly spraying just outside my bedroom over many years, in fact all round out house. Interestingly this is something that affluent people did, an extra protection against malaria, poor people were not exposed in the same way, their water sources were sprayed.

It is the main reason I am not able to know whether this environmental cause is why both my grandmother and I got PD, or whether there is a hereditary factor, or both........ but there are still questions about why these things affect some people and not others, and it must be this, the predisposing factor, that lies at the heart of why we become pwp........

Heredity
 

Lindy,

I am really interested in the genetic component because I have two generations, well three actually if I count myself. on my dad's side with undiagnosed tremor

I read recently that they think that Young Onset people generally have a strong genetic component. I have seen figures that say 30-40 % and some as high as 50 % of YO have a genetic mutation. I can't for the life of me understand how they get these numbers given no one can even say for sure how many people worldwide have PD. Then I wonder just who are they testing? Certainly not me. I also wonder how many of us have genetic variants but go unaccounted for? I have read they now have 13-14 Parkin mutations, yet maybe only one or two they can test reliably for at a general lab. Frustrating as I'd like to know for my son's sake what is up.

It does seem that we have rather delicate systems or our BBB is like a sieve or something. It is odd that something so ubiquitous as particulate matter could be the start of something so complex.

Laura

ultra fine particulates
 

UFP are not your average dust. They have at least two characteristics of note. First they are incredibly tiny. So small that they can ride the internal conveyor systems within individual neurons and blow right past the BBB. Second they can serve as "piggy back" transporters of a variety of chemical molecules.

But the main effect is that they are inflammatory wherever they go.