Hi Bary i live in NJ but as u probably deducted I was not born here. I am one of those foreigners who come here just to make money ha ha ha. I lived in Main and Phili. Eventually we settled here. We live here for 45 years. Same location . we made many friends here in fact PD did not change me the years did . I am afraid for the worse . I still play bridge with my friends 2x a week. Zlatica

Dreamcatcher, I am from Whaite Plains NY not to far from New Jersey. Still Metro NY

To clarify: It seems there is a disproportionate numbers of members from the NJ-NY area in this group. Over the years areas within our states have been IDd as cancer hot spots. I'm just curious about whether they were also hot spots for movement disorders. Not that there's anything we can do about it now. I think I think too much ;-)

Hi - I live in Jersey too. Union County area although I grew up in the midwest farm country have lived in NJ for 36 years.

Hi Bari. I can relate to your question. My PD support group leader said that Renfrew County, Ontario where I live, has a higher than average percentage of people with PD. We were wondering if it had anything to do with the fact that it is a rural / agricultural area. Maybe it could have something to do with pesticide or herbicide sprays.

Phil

Phil, A good friend worked on a hops farm in Argentina 40 years ago. There, they used (prolly misused) a chemical spray that his neurodocs tell him is now showing itself as the main culprit in his pd. 'Fraid I don't know enough of hops, chemicals, New Jersey, or Ontario to add anything more... so I'll just send along my best wishes.

Beekeeper

That makes me think..i got PD a few years after starting the hobby of swimming almost daily in the Umzimvubu river, rural area, farmland, where light planes spray the crops.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110526152555.htm

Above article does a good job of explaining Links between PD & pesticides, herbisides, & fungisides. My neuro/MDS claims Parkinson's is not a heredity disease - that multiple afflictions within families aren't genetic, but rather, shared exposure to the same toxic substances. Those in the family who are unaffected had better biological resistance. Something to think about ...

hereditary, herbicides, fungicides. That's better.

Thanks Dreamcatcher, very interesting!

An interesting survey...

My parents lived in northern NJ from 1970 until 1994. We moved there when I was six, and I left after graduating high school in 1982, boomeranging back from 1991 - 1993 while working in Manhattan for 2.5 years. My mother has PD, and my father and I have Restless Leg Syndrome (his is quite bad, mine is still mild). No cancers, knock on wood.

Dreamcatcher, I should add something. When I joined Facebook in 2009 and reconnected with several dozen former grammar school and high school classmates, I inquired re: neurological diseases since my hometown used a public well system. One classmate knew of another person with PD (a parent, i.e., someone in their 70's), another classmate just passed from brain cancer a few months ago, two parents of classmates have Alzheimer's, and one classmate has a child with Autism. From what I can tell so far, there's no prevalence of PD or other neurological diseases, at least not yet. (Some classmates and I are in our late-40's and some are in their early-50's, so time will tell, I guess.)

When I posted this question I was thinking small, as in the NY metropolitan area. But the responses that followed were big, as in global locations & global implications. They represented urban areas - no big surprise - but also rural areas in Canada, Argentina, South Africa, the American Midwest, and a US veteran exposed to Agent Orange (Viet Nam?) This might explain why people are getting PD at younger & younger ages. As we continue to use more chemicals untested for human safety, we're saturating our air, soil, & groundwater with higher & higher concentrations of toxins. The chemicals that airplane is spraying 30 miles away may be leaching into the water we drink. I posted a link to an article about 3 chemicals that have a positive connection to PD. I think continued research will reveal many more. The bottom line is that PD probably didn't just "happen" to us; we've all probably been exposed to something toxic in our lives that caused our disease.

Grew up and still live in Australia

My husband farmed for 29 years and used spray. He also sprayed the weeds around the lawns with a hand sprayer, so maybe the chemicals do have something to do with it. However, how do you explain why other farmers who do the same thing and have been farming longer and don't get Parkinson's?
We also live in an area where there are many tobacco smoke barns so I wonder about that too for cancer causing reasons.