summary: Trichlorethylene (TCE), a chemical widely used in decaffeinated coffee, metal degreasers, and dry cleaning of clothes, is associated with a 500% increased risk of Parkinson’s disease.
sauce: University of Rochester
A common and widely used chemical may be fueling the rise of Parkinson’s disease, the world’s fastest growing brain disease.
For the past 100 years, trichlorethylene (TCE) has been used to decaffeinate coffee, degreas metals, and dry clean clothes. It pollutes Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune, 15 toxic Superfund sites in Silicon Valley, and up to a third of the U.S. groundwater.
TCE causes cancer, is associated with miscarriage and congenital heart disease, and increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease by 500%.
In the hypothesis paper of Parkinson’s JournalAn international team of researchers, including Ray Dorsey, M.D., Ruth Schneider, M.D., and Karl Kieburtz, M.D., neurologists at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), have found that TCEs may be the hidden cause of Parkinson’s disease. I’m assuming it has potential.
In the paper, they detail widespread chemical use, evidence linking toxic substances to Parkinson’s disease, and describe seven people, from former NBA basketball players to Navy captains to the late U.S. Senator, who probably developed Parkinson’s after working. introduces the person of Being exposed to chemicals with or in the environment.
ubiquitous and pervasive industrial pollutants
TCE was a widely used solvent in many industrial, consumer, military, and medical applications, such as removing paint, fixing typos, cleaning engines, and anesthetizing patients.Use in the United States began in the 1970s. peaked in 2008, producing more than 600 million pounds (2 pounds per American) of chemicals annually.
About 10 million Americans worked with chemicals or other similar industrial solvents. Household use has declined since then, but in the United States TCE is still used for metal degreasing and spot dry cleaning.
TCE contaminates countless facilities across the country. Half of the most toxic Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites contain TCE. With 15 sites in California’s Silicon Valley, chemicals were used to clean electronics and computer chips. TCE has been found at many military bases, including Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, one million Marines, their families, and civilians who worked or lived on base were exposed to drinking-water levels of TCE and perchlorethylene (PCE). . considered a safe level.
TCE and Parkinson’s disease
The relationship between TCE and Parkinson’s disease was first suggested in a case study over 50 years ago. Over the next few years, studies in mice and rats showed that TCE readily entered brain and body tissues, and at high doses it damaged the energy-producing parts of cells known as mitochondria. In animal studies, TCE causes selective loss of dopaminergic neurons. This is characteristic of Parkinson’s disease in humans.
People who have directly dealt with TCE are at increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. However, the authors warn that “millions more are unknowingly exposed to chemicals through outdoor air, contaminated groundwater and indoor air pollution.”
This chemical can contaminate soil and groundwater, leading to underground rivers and plumes. Plumes can spread over long distances and migrate over time. One such plume, associated with an aerospace company in Long Island, New York, is more than four miles long and two miles wide, and has contaminated thousands of drinking water. Others can be found everywhere from Shanghai, China to Newport Beach, California.
Beyond the risk to water, volatile TCE can easily evaporate and enter people’s homes, schools, and workplaces, often undetected. Today, this vapor intrusion can expose millions of people who live, study, and work near former dry-cleaning, military, and industrial sites to toxic indoor air.
Vapor intrusion was first reported in the 1980s when radon was found to evaporate from the soil and enter homes, increasing the risk of lung cancer. Today, millions of homes are tested for radon, but few are tested for the cancer-causing TCE.
Decades before symptoms appear
This work presents seven individuals in whom TCE may have contributed to Parkinson’s disease. Although the evidence linking TCE exposure to Parkinson’s disease in these individuals is contextual, Their story highlights the challenges of building a case for chemicals. In these cases, decades often pass between exposure to TCE and onset of Parkinson’s disease symptoms.
Case studies include professional basketball player Brian Grant, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 36 after playing 12 years in the NBA. Stationed at Camp Lejeune. Grant established a foundation to inspire and support sick people.
Amy Lindbergh was similarly exposed to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune as a young Navy Colonel and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 30 years later.
The work is dedicated to others who have been exposed as a result of living near contaminated sites or working with chemicals, including the late Senator Johnny Isakson, who resigned after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015. 50 years ago, he used TCE to degrease aircraft in the Georgia Air National Guard.
Addressing threats to public health
The authors conclude, “For more than a century, TCEs have threatened workers, polluted the air we breathe (outdoor and indoor), and polluted the water we drink. is increasing without
The authors prohibit a course of action to address the public health threat posed by TCE. They note that vapor remediation systems similar to those used for radon can successfully remediate contaminated areas and reduce exposure to indoor air. But with thousands of contaminated sites in the United States alone, this process of cleanup and containment needs to be accelerated.
They argue that more research is needed to better understand how TCEs contribute to Parkinson’s disease and other diseases. TCE levels in indoor air require more rigorous monitoring and this information should be shared with people who live and work near contaminated sites.
Additionally, the authors are calling for a final end to the use of these chemicals in the United States. Her two states, Minnesota and New York, have banned TCEs, despite the recent 2022 EPA finding that the chemical poses an “unreasonable risk to human health.” , the federal government does not ban TCE.
About this Parkinson’s Disease Research News
author: press office
sauce: University of Rochester
contact: Press Office – University of Rochester
image: image is public domain
Original research: open access.
“Trichlorethylene: an invisible cause of Parkinson’s disease?by Ray Dorsey et al. Parkinson’s Journal
overview
Trichlorethylene: an invisible cause of Parkinson’s disease?
The etiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) remains unknown. Some, such as certain genetic mutations and head injuries, are widely known or easily identifiable. However, these causes or risk factors do not account for most cases. Other less obvious factors must be involved.
Among these is trichlorethylene (TCE), a widely used industrial solvent and a common environmental pollutant with little recognized role in PD. TCE is a simple six-atom molecule that can decaffeinate coffee, degreas metal parts, and dry clean clothes.
Colorless chemicals were first associated with Parkinsonism in 1969. Since then, occupational exposure to TCE has been associated with his PD in his four case studies of eight individuals.
Additionally, a small epidemiological study found that occupational or hobbyist exposure to solvents was associated with a 500% increased risk of developing PD. In multiple animal studies, this chemical reproduces the pathological features of PD.
Exposure is not limited to workers working with chemicals. TCE pollutes outdoor air, pollutes groundwater, and pollutes indoor air. Radon-like molecules evaporate from underlying soils and groundwater, often entering homes, workplaces, or schools undetected.
Despite widespread contamination and increased industrial, commercial, and military use, clinical studies of TCE and PD are limited.
Here, through a literature review and seven illustrative cases, this ubiquitous chemical contributes to the global rise in PD, and TCE is one of its invisible and highly preventable causes. is assumed to be Further studies are needed to test this hypothesis.
