Pesticide Use on Job Linked to Parkinson’s

People exposed to pesticides at work have a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease, a study has found. The study compared two groups of more than 500 people each. They were similar in age and in other ways. But one group had Parkinson’s disease and the other did not. People who were exposed to pesticides on the job had an 80% higher rate of Parkinson’s disease. This means there were 18 people with job exposure who had Parkinson’s disease for every 10 people with no job exposure who had the disease. The risk of Parkinson’s disease was more than triple the average for people exposed to one of three chemicals. They were Agent Orange, paraquat and permethrin. The study appeared in the journal Archives of Neurology. Reuters Health news service wrote about it September 14.