Parkinson’s disease is the fastest-growing neurological illness across the globe. Just over the past decade, the disease has increased 35 percent. According to Dr. Ray Dorsey, a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, as quoted by The Guardian, “We think over the next 25 years it will double again.”
Last Wednesday, The Guardian reported that researchers have identified a chemical commonly used in dry cleaning, shoe polish, and carpet cleaners that are a major reason for the sharp rise in Parkinson’s.
The suspected chemical is trichloroethylene (TCE), which is used in industrial degreasing as well as many home cleaning products. The Guardian cites a 2008 study published in the Annals of Neurology that pointed to TCE as “a risk factor for Parkinsonism.” One of the leaders of the study, Dr. Samuel Goldman, wrote, “Our study confirms that common environmental contaminants may increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s, which has considerable public health implications.”
The Guardian article added that this study, as well as one in 2011 that showed a six-fold rise in the disease for those exposed to TCE in the workplace, led the U.S. Department of Labor to recommend that exposure to TCE “can be presumed to cause, contribute, or aggravate Parkinsonism.”
Dr. Dorsey is convinced that TCEs are in the U.S. groundwater system along with “pesticides like paraquat too.” The Guardian reported that paraquat, a lethal weed killer, is still available in the U.S. despite being banned in the EU, Brazil, and China.
The article suggests that activated carbon filtration filters can help cut down the amount of TCE in drinking water, but there’s no real protection when bathing in contaminated water or breathing TCE that rises from the soil. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “estimates that 250 pounds of the chemical are still used annually in the U.S., and that in 2017, “more than two million pounds of it was released into the environment from industrial sites, contaminating air, soil and water.”
The Guardian article states that 30 percent of U.S. groundwater contains TCE, although it quotes toxicologist Brian de Miranda, “We are under-sampling how many people are exposed to TCE. It’s probably a lot more than we guess.”
Last May, Minnesota was the first state to officially ban TCE. Last December, New York also banned it. But everywhere else, even though the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has been citing the health consequences of TCE since 1932, the chemical continues to be added to household cleaners and is leaching into groundwater.
TRENDPOST: As noted in this week’s Trends Journal article, “DEADLY “FOREVER CHEMICALS” IN U.S. WATER,” life on the planet is being destroyed by chemicals. This is old news that the mainstream media – which rely heavily on drug and chemical companies to buy advertising space – essentially ignore.
In reality, it’s a revolving door. The heads of government agencies are high-level flunkies pulled from the private sector and vice versa. Thus, they represent the special corporate interests and not the public interests. Moreover, big industry fills the pockets of politicians with bribes and payoffs, which morons and imbeciles call campaign contributions, to pass and/or kill laws that affect their bottom line: money.
