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Parkinson’s disease risk from ambient exposure to pesticides

  • NEURO-EPIDEMIOLOGY
  • Published:
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Abstract

Due to the heavy and expanding agricultural use of neurotoxic pesticides suspected to affect dopaminergic neurons, it is imperative to closely examine the role of pesticides in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). We focus our investigation on pesticide use in California’s heavily agricultural central valley by utilizing a unique pesticide use reporting system. From 2001 to 2007, we enrolled 362 incident PD cases and 341 controls living in the Central Valley of California. Employing our geographic information system model, we estimated ambient exposures to the pesticides ziram, maneb, and paraquat at work places and residences from 1974 to 1999. At workplaces, combined exposure to ziram, maneb, and paraquat increased risk of PD three-fold (OR: 3.09; 95% CI: 1.69, 5.64) and combined exposure to ziram and paraquat, excluding maneb exposure, was associated with a 80% increase in risk (OR:1.82; 95% CI: 1.03, 3.21). Risk estimates for ambient workplace exposure were greater than for exposures at residences and were especially high for younger onset PD patients and when exposed in both locations. Our study is the first to implicate ziram in PD etiology. Combined ambient exposure to ziram and paraquat as well as combined ambient exposure to maneb and paraquat at both workplaces and residences increased PD risk substantially. Those exposed to ziram, maneb, and paraquat together experienced the greatest increase in PD risk. Our results suggest that pesticides affecting different mechanisms that contribute to dopaminergic neuron death may act together to increase the risk of PD considerably.

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Abbreviations

CA DPR:

California department of pesticide regulation

CI:

Confidence interval

GIS:

Geographic information system

HIPAA:

Health insurance portability and accountability act

OR:

Odds ratio

PD:

Parkinson’s disease

PLSS:

Public land survey system

PUR:

Pesticide use report

UCLA:

University of California Los Angeles

UPS:

Ubiquitin proteasome system

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Institute of Environmental Health Science [grant numbers ES10544, U54ES12078, 5P30 ES07048], National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [grant number NS 038367], and Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program [grant number 051037]; in addition, initial pilot funding was provided by the American Parkinson’s Disease Association.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, BOX 951772, 650 Charles E. Young Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1772, USA

    Anthony Wang

  2. Environmental Health Sciences, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 50 University Hall, #7360, Berkeley, CA, 94720-7360, USA

    Sadie Costello

  3. Preventive Medicine and Geography, USC/Keck School of Medicine, 1441 Eastlake Ave, MC9175, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-9175, USA

    Myles Cockburn & Xinbo Zhang

  4. Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, 710 Westwood Plaza, Los Angles, CA, 90095, USA

    Jeff Bronstein

  5. Epidemiology, Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health, BOX 951772, 650 Charles E. Young Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1772, USA

    Beate Ritz

  6. Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, BOX 951772, 650 Charles E. Young Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1772, USA

    Beate Ritz

Authors
  1. Anthony Wang
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  2. Sadie Costello
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  3. Myles Cockburn
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  4. Xinbo Zhang
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Correspondence to Anthony Wang.

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Wang, A., Costello, S., Cockburn, M. et al. Parkinson’s disease risk from ambient exposure to pesticides. Eur J Epidemiol 26, 547–555 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-011-9574-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-011-9574-5

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