AIR POLLUTION AND PARKINSON'S DISEASE

13th October 2014 - New research

Exposure to air pollution has been implicated as a cause of Parkinson's Disease. The first

prominent descriptions of Parkinson's Disease came at the time of the Industrial Revolution when pollution levels escalated. Yet, no prospective study has examined the association between particulate matter and the risk of Parkinson's Disease.

After adjusting for age in months, smoking, region, population density, caffeine and ibuprofen intake, there was found to be no statistically significant associations between exposure to air pollution and the risk of Parkinson's Disease. The relative risk of Parkinson's Disease was 1.08 for pollution particles that were less

than 2.5 microns in diameter, 0.92 for pollution particles that were 2.5 to 10.0 microns in diameter, and 0.99 for pollution particles that were more than 10.0 microns in diameter. These likelihoods are little different from what would be expected normally.

There are areas of the world where pollution is definitely a serious cause of Parkinson's Disease. One of the world's highest prevalences of Parkinson's Disease is in the vicinities of ferromanganese plants near Brescia in Italy. Manganese concentrations in settled dust were found to be significantly higher in the surroundings and downwind from the ferromanganese plants. In high concentrations, manganese is a known cause of Parkinson's Disease.

Reference : Environmental Health [2014] 13 (1) : 80 [Epub ahead of print] (N.Palacios,

K.C.Fitzgerald, J.E.Hart, M.G.Weisskopf, M.A.Schwarzschild, A.Ascherio, F.Laden)

Complete abstract : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25294559

http://www.viartis.net/parkinsons.disease/news/141013.pdf

mail@viartis.net

©2014

Environ Health. 2014 Oct 7;13(1):80. [Epub ahead of print]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25294559

Particulate matter and risk of parkinson disease in a large prospective study of women.

Palacios N, Fitzgerald KC, Hart JE, Weisskopf MG, Schwarzschild MA, Ascherio A, Laden F.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Exposure to air pollution has been implicated in a number of adverse health outcomes and the effect of particulate matter (PM) on the brain is beginning to be recognized. Yet, no prospective study has examined the association between PM and risk of Parkinson Disease. Thus, our goal was assess if exposure to particulate matter air pollution is related to risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), a large prospective cohort of women.

METHODS:

Cumulative average exposure to different size fractions of PM up to 2 years before the onset of PD, was estimated using a spatio-temporal model by linking each individual's places of residence throughout the study with location-specific air pollution levels. We prospectively followed 115,767 women in the NHS, identified 508 incident PD cases and used multivariable Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the risk of PD associated with each size fraction of PM independently.

RESULTS:

In models adjusted for age in months, smoking, region, population density, caffeine and ibuprofen intake, we observed no statistically significant associations between exposure to air pollution and PD risk. The relative risk (RR) comparing the top quartile to the bottom quartile of PM exposure was 0.99 (95% Confidence Intervals (CI): 0.84,1.16) for PM10 (<=10 microns in diameter), 1.08 (95% CI: 0.81, 1.45) for PM2.5 (<=2.5 microns in diameter), and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.71, 1.19) for PM10-2.5 (2.5 to 10 microns in diameter).

CONCLUSIONS:

In this study, we found no evidence that exposure to air pollution is a risk factor for PD.