Common dry-cleaning chemical may be fuelling rise in PARKINSON'S disease

[hollydolly]

• The industrial solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) has been used for years in the US
• When it leaches into groundwater, TCE increases risks of cancers, miscarriages
• The contaminant has been found in countless US sites including a military base

A common chemical used to dry clean clothes may be fueling the rise of the world's fastest-growing brain condition, Parkinson's disease, a study suggests.

For the past 100 years, trichloroethylene (TCE) has been used to decaffeinate coffee, degrease metal, and dry clean clothes.

It has been banned by the food and pharmaceutical industries since the 1970s but is still used in many states in household products, such as cleaning wipes, aerosol cleaning products, tool cleaners, paint removers, spray adhesives, and carpet cleaners and spot removers.

A review of existing research has linked the chemical to Parkinson's on the back of years of mounting evidence.

Lead author Dr Ray Dorsey, of the University of Rochester, New York, said: 'For more than a century TCE has threatened workers, polluted the air we breathe - outside and inside - and contaminated the water we drink. Global use is waxing, not waning.'

A global study in 2013 found it increased the risk of the neurological condition sixfold. TCE is still used as a degreasing agent.

Dr Dorsey and colleagues say the toxic chemical may be fuelling rising numbers of cases of Parkinson's disease cases across the world.

About one million people in the US currently suffer from the condition. Doctors diagnose 60,000 Americans each year.

Brian Grant, who played for 12 years in the NBA, was struck down at the age of 36.

He was likely exposed to TCE when he was three years old. His father, then a Marine, was stationed at Camp Lejeune, where it contaminates the US military base.

Amy Lindberg was similarly exposed there while serving as a young Navy captain. She went on to be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease 30 years later.

The study details others whose exposure was the result of living close to a contaminated site or working with the chemical.

They include the late US Senator Johnny Isakson, who stepped down from office after his diagnosis in 2015.

Fifty years earlier, he served in the Georgia Air National Guard, which used TCE to degrease airplanes.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...ise-PARKINSONS-disease-cases-study-warns.html