A little over a year ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. I’ve been seeing ads on Facebook about a class action suit based on the premise that PD can be caused by Paraquat and other chemicals. Is this a legitimate thing, or a phishing scam?
Parkinson’s is somewhat more of a diagnosis than a specific disease, in that it’s the result of certain neurons in the brain dying and causing the symptoms. WHY those neurons die can be due to multiple causes.
So there can be Parkinsonism caused by chemical/toxin exposure, and it can also be an Alzheimers-like disorder that’s not caused by environmental issues.
That said, the current thinking is that it’s a blend of both genetic predisposition and environmental factors that causes most Parkinson’s disease.
So not out of the question, but what you describe on Facebook does sound like ambulance-chaser type BS.
Did you mean: could there be a connection between Parkinson’s disease and pesticides?
Not saying that what you saw isn’t phishing/ambulance-chaser type BS, but it’s seems that it’s not without some scientific basis:
Of course, that might just be a convenient hook to hang a scam on - you can never tell.
If you google parkinson’s disease pesticides you’ll find plenty more refs - it certainly does appear to be a thing.
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According to an article I read on Lifegate.com “to people who have a genetic predisposition to develop the disease and are exposed to the chemicals the risk of developing Parkinson increases of 250%” . The study was first published in the journal of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (Faseb).
In 2012 France officially acknowledged Parkinson as a work related disease for farmers.
I agree that the reasons a person develops Parkinson disease are multiple, but exposure to pesticides plays a role. Also living for years close to farms where pesticides are sprayed is dangerous.
Joining a class action aiming at pesticides reduction is a good thing, for a lot of good reasons.
It’s “a good thing” only if there’s good science showing a connection between a particular pesticide’s use and disease.
Currently a bunch of sleazy law firms are cashing in on settlements with the maker of glyphosate based on claims of lymphoma causation, despite abundant scientific evidence showing no connection. The end result of glyphosate demonization is likely a return to considerably more toxic chemicals like 2,4-D and atrazine. “Get rid of pesticides altogether” is not a viable option.
@Jackmannii Of course it is a viable option. Many alternative way of farming already show it is possible to provide food with a almost zero level of chemicals. I am really in it, not just expressing my opinion.
There are many connections between pesticides (gliphosate at the first place) and various diseases spread. No doubt about it. People who don’t see it clearly have a lazy attitude towards the topic, are not really interested in it, just don’t care about what they eat, the effects of food production on environment and the crucial impact of their carbon footprint on the planet. There is overabundance of studies about pesticides, it does surprise me your talking about the one showing lack of connections between health problems and chemicals in food.
Don’t know about pesticides, but I know that my mom’s cousin had Parkinson’s Disease. Because he had been in Vietnam and presumably exposed to Agent Orange, the VA covered his medical expenses.
https://www.parkinson.org/Living-with-Parkinsons/Managing-Parkinsons/Veterans/PD-Agent-Orange
Do you know that were definitely exposed to Parquat or similar?
It may be getting beyond the scope of this thread, but I’d be intrigued to hear what alternative ways of farming are virtually chemical-free. That description certainly doesn’t apply to organic farming. See a list of organic-approved chemicals here:
In one recent year in California, about 50 million pounds of sulfur (a-OK for organic farms) and 38 million pounds of petroleum-derived products and mineral oil (also organic-approved) were applied to farm fields. Some non-organic farms use these products too, but the data suggests that organic farming is anything but chemical-free.
On the subject of this thread, it’s worth mentioning that research in recent years has shown connections between two agricultural chemicals and development of Parkinson’s disease. One, as noted, is paraquat. The other, rotenone is an organic (plant-derived) chemical that had wide use in the U.S. before the EPA suspended its application in farming, but to my knowledge it is still used on foreign crops and might be present on produce imported into this country.
I suppose that’s better than dismissing opposing views as coming from “shills”, but not much.
Glyphosate, while not completely innocuous (no agricultural chemical is) has not been convincingly linked to “various diseases”. Some lawyers have cashed in on alleged connections to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, based mostly on a deeply flawed report from the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer). A large volume of independent research and analyses from health bodies in the U.S. and abroad (including Health Canada) has found no such connection or other evidence of significant disease association.
https://gmo.geneticliteracyproject.org/FAQ/is-glyphosate-roundup-dangerous/
This discussion is getting rather far afield of the the original question about Parkinson’s so I’ll defer for now additional comments on the wider subject of organic vs. synthetic in agriculture.
I’m sorry to have done a post-and-dash. I didn’t mean to. I’ve been sick for a couple days, with leg pain and a foot infection. Thank you for your replies so far.
And even if it’s possible to produce some food organically, is it possible to feed everyone that way? Organic farming often requires more land, more labor, and sometimes more of various other resources, than non-organic.
This is rhetoric. Your questions have already been answered in recent years. You choose what to eat. You choose where to find your information. You choose the battles you want find, the class actions you want to join.
@Jackmannii for sure european organic farming regulations are different from the US ones, I could provide examples of agri companies that use just one chemical (copper 
) in its production. But I agree that we must stay on topic and here I close. FYI have a look at this modern alternative farming model History – SEKEM