Paraquat, Herbicides may Increase Parkinson’s Risk Threefold by Lisa Garber

Paraquat, Herbicides may Increase Parkinson’s Risk Threefold

by Lisa Garber

Natural Society,  14 November 2012

Evidence is piling up that Parkinson’s is just one of many favors herbicides are doling out to the American public  A study investigating about 110 participants in central California found that individuals worked with or lived in areas with paraquat and who had a head injury were three times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.

Paraquat is known to be deadly to animals and humans, and is used as an alternative where other herbicides like glyphosate, an ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, have failed with weed management. (And it’s no wonder these herbicides are failing. Roundup itself is responsible for spawning over120 million hectares of superweeds worldwide while trying to extinguish the very insects they’re making pesticide-resistant thanks to their GMO crops.)

Paraquat Exposure Increases Parkinson’s Risk Threefold

The study involved about 350 people with Parkinson’s and about 750 without, each of whom reported any previous head injuries in which they lost consciousness for over five minutes. State data was confided in to determine if each subject lived or worked within a third of a mile of an agricultural area employing paraquat.

Patients with Parkinson’s were 12 percent likely to have suffered a head injury, while those without the disorder were 7 percent likely.

Statistics on herbicide exposure, however, are more startling. Parkinson’s patients were 36 percent more likely to have been exposed to paraquat than those without the disorder.

“This study suggests that the physiological process that is triggered by a head injury may increase brain cells’ vulnerability to attacks from pesticides that can be toxic to the brain, or the other way around,” said study author Dr. Beate Ritz of the University of California, Los Angeles. “For example, chronic low-dose exposure to pesticides may increase the risk of Parkinson’s after a head injury.”

Dangers of Agribusiness

Herbicides, GMOs, and other manifestations of agribusiness arrogance and greed have been harming humans, animals, and the planet for decades. Roundup is responsible for human kidney cell degradation and death, while the very crops genetically designed to withstand Roundup have even been shown to contribute to mental illness and obesity by destroying gut flora.

Worse, you don’t even have to work in a field to get a taste of agribusiness’ greed.  As it turns out, you just have to turn on the faucet, since glyphosate regularly contaminates groundwater—your drinking water.

Source:

Natural Society