Thank you for sharing this very interesting.

I was resting in a field in another country when a crop dusting plane flew over and I was totally crop dusted. I had 10 years of seizures from it. Due to my business I have been exposed to multiple toxic chemicals. The doctors strongly believe this may be the base cause of my Parkinson,

RJRelaxing, I guess we will never know for a surety, but we did the best with what we knew at the time. Would that we could change the past! (However, I'm not sure I wouldn't muck it up just the same :) )

Prayers for your PD!

Shelll No Pest Strips would drop a fly dead out of the air in our house and we were too trusting and stupid to realize what it was doing to us. My mom had PD and my sisters are not well.

I certainly believe that pesticides have something to do with PD. When I was between the ages of 17 until 23 i lived in a apartment where they sprayed for cock roaches about every 3 months. I never wore gloves or protective gear. I am almost certain that this is the reason I have PD today.

Just an interesting tidbit: I actually read an article a few months ago that suggested PD may be environmental and that it may be from things you are exposed to, or things the mother was exposed to that caused a genetic abnormality leading to children who are predisposed to PD. Just a thought!

I was on the last legal application job with DDT. It was to control the Tussock Moth on the Willowa-Whitman NF in central OR. My job was to keep the application systems operating, load chemical on the tank drive the truck to the next mornings spray area and hook the spray bucket to the helicopter. Two other ground folks filled the empty spray system and serviced the motor on the spray bucket. From June 9,1974 thru July 25,1974 I lived with the stuff. Now research has determined that there is a link. Everyone of us that can show exposure to DDT should let their Neurologist know. I for one will be sending a copy of this posting to the researcher that published the finding in the February 4 issue of Neurology.

Paladin47 -- thanks for sharing this beyond our group. I grew up in Eastern Washington State, so the use of DDT was as common there as in Oregon. I know our parents had no idea that is was deadly.

I also remember the few years we couldn't drink milk because of the Strontium 90.....we do better when we know better.

Thanks for being an educator!
Annie

Growing up in the Jersey Shore area, trucks would spray for mosquitoes several times each summer. Were they spraying DDT? Flyers warned people to stay indoors, but you couldn't stay in forever, and most of the kids had great fun running after the trucks. My father would sprinkled DDT around the foundation to keep insects out. In those days the ocean water we swam in was tainted with all kinds of dumped toxins from North Jersey & NYC. Who knew back then? Life was simpler, but maybe not healthier - at least in NJ.

Anyone wanting to live in the charming Disney-designed town of Celebration, FL, a few minutes' drive south of downtown Orlando, beware! Since the first homeowners took up residence there and, at least, through 2009 when I lived in Celebration for a few months while working in Orlando at that time, mosquito pesticides were strayed from small trucks nightly...yes, nightly...into the tree-lined streets, into pools, and onto cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and anyone walking about on the sidewalks and puttering in yards. After being sprayed twice while walking through the community after work shortly after my arrival, I never again ventured outside in the evenings and only did so half-heartedly on weekend mornings to walk or ride my bike on those weekend mornings when I was in town. No one I spoke with was concerned; some people even got irritated with me for mentioning my concern! I fled four months later, never looking back...

Since my family has no PD history (my sisters grew up in another state as they were considerably older), and I have had pretty extensive genetic testing because of the Lynch Syndrome 2, I am quite inclined to accept environmental causes, or at least triggers, to PD for many of us. Like most chronic disease, I doubt it is just one thing.

You all have contributed so much about your experiences. Hopefully we can at least watch out for our grandchildren and this kind of exposure. I worry about sunscreen & suntan lotions -- and sun exposure for them. We didn't know any better when we were growing up, and I know we need sunlight -- but what do we really know about sunscreen, which here in the South is a must do.

Love you all for your compassion and intelligence, and willingness to walk this hard journey helping others. :)

When I was about 6 years old, in Uvalde, TX, they would regularly have trucks spraying for mosquitoes, leaving a white cloud behind them. My brothers and I thought it great fun to run around in the cloud as the truck went by.

I guess if that is part of the cause of my PD, my brothers are due to get it at some point too.

Cole50, maybe not. We all have a different genetic mix, even as siblings.

My family has what we jokingly call "double cousins", where my dad's brother married my mom's sister. We do all have a lot of the same genetic disorders and other chronic illnesses (we have Lynch Syndrome 2), BUT no else has PD. We're all around the same ages.

My father had pd the last 20 years of his life. I have been diagnosed for 10 years now. I have had genetic testing and have none of the markers they expected to find. No Larrk2 specific to Jewish people from eastern europe or others. Nice word ideopathic which means the doctors have no clue where I got it from. It does not matter Good luck and good health. Alex

While different genes might play into a pesticide-origin PD, the fact that it affects such a broad spectrum of people exposed, no matter their genes, means genetics shouldn't play into it highly.

We're not talking genetic PD, but circumstantially based PD, at least those that are known to cause it, like certain pesticides.

I have no idea if playing in the pesticide cloud on a regular basis is the reason I have PD, nor does it mean if it is, that my brothers would necessarily get it too, but I'm sure it substantially raises the risk of them getting it IF that was the cause of mine.

But there is so much we don't know about the cause of PD, who knows if that is the cause of mine or not.

Have been reading your posts and find them very interesting. I have spent my life in "Chemical Valley" in West Virginia. A lot of the toxins mentioned or their components were manufactured here and some still are.

January of this year, our water was contaminated by an "unknown" chemical that leaked out of a tank farm 1 mile up river of the intake for the city's water. The only reason we knew about the leak was because of the smell. We have been buying water to drink and cook with since then. Wonder what we may have been exposed to that we couldn't smell?

Living here all these years with constant exposure to toxins I anticipated having some health problems. Although PD was not on my list of expected health problems, I have no doubt that environmental contamination may be a factor

I am the only one in my family with PD and I am the only one that still lives in West Virginia. Couldn't leave the mountains, they are too beautiful.