Wow - ANOTHER reason not to spray anything! When I first joined the ARS, completely ignorant about gardening, I read all of those articles about how you had to have a "spraying program", and had to do it religiously. Luckily that paled after about 2 weeks, and I put the sprayer away never to touch it again. Now it turns out that that was not only good for the birds, bees, water, etc., but it was also good for me and my neighbors and passersby.

What really amazes me is that I STILL see that sort of comment in some articles in the ARS magazine.

Jackie

I work in the pharmaceutical/medical industry, many many drugs are particulalry toxic to the brain and indeed increase one's risk for cancer and Parkinsons disease. I dont care if some of the roses have a few bites out of them, I want to be around longer to enjoy them.

after graduating, I only spray with safe compounds like baking soda, horticultrural oil, and the like. I work with enough hazardous chemicals!!

King College in Bristol Tennessee???? Henry, when I tried to click on glyphosate (Isn't that Round Up?), I had to join to get the information. If they are using the Round Up and fungicide together on worms, would that really be proof that there is a problem with Round Up?

This was "accepted" on Feb 8. Are other Universities picking it up? Are there other ideas? Do you know who sponsored this one claim?

I think you are a scientist, and you understand things I don't, but isn't it a little early here to make a decision about a product?

Insecticides have been linked this Parkinson's for years, but have herbicides also been linked with it? How about weed and grass killers?

Sammy (who is ready to start spraying the Round Up any day now.)

I suggest a Google Scholar search using the keywords "parkinson's disease" (with brackets) and glyphosate

The following is listed as the funding source:

"This work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences[R15ES015628 to VF]and by the Appalachian College Association Colonel Lee B.Ledford
Endowment Fund[to R.N.,D.R.,N.D.,A.J.andV.F.]."

The description of the journal is given below in the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: link to journal

In the last post I meant with quotes not brackets.

Title: Effect of pesticides on cell survival in liver and brain rat tissues

Authors: Mariana Astiza, Mar�a J.T. de Alaniza and Carlos Alberto Marra, a,

Authors affiliation: aINIBIOLP (Instituto de Investigaciones Bioqu�micas de La Plata), CCT La Plata, CONICET-UNLP, C�tedra de Bioqu�mica y Biolog�a Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias M�dicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 60 y 120 (1900) La Plata, Argentina

Published in: Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Volume 72, Issue 7, October 2009, Pages 2025-2032

Abstract: "Pesticides are the main environmental factor associated with the etiology of human neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Our laboratory has previously demonstrated that the treatment of rats with low doses of dimethoate, zineb or glyphosate alone or in combination induces oxidative stress (OS) in liver and brain. The aim of the present work was to investigate if the pesticide-induced OS was able to affect brain and liver cell survival. The treatment of Wistar rats with the pesticides (i.p. 1/250 LD50, three times a week for 5 weeks) caused loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential and cardiolipin content, especially in substantia nigra (SN), with a concomitant increase of fatty acid peroxidation. The activation of calpain apoptotic cascade (instead of the caspase-dependent pathway) would be responsible for the DNA fragmentation pattern observed. Thus, these results may contribute to understand the effect(s) of chronic and simultaneous exposure to pesticides on cell survival."

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above

I hate these reports, although I appreciate your efforts in sharing them with us.

Round Up (easier to use than the gly word) can be used to spray from an airplaine on crops weekly, then we eat the crops.

It can also be sprayed from my little sprayer once a month to get rid of all the weeds, and grasses I don't want - especially on the hillside where poison ivy, all kinds of weeds and grasses can grow with vigor, and hide the landscape for the intrusion of rats, mice, snakes, and even armadillos.

It scares me to use a product that could be unsafe, yet the area that I want to use it on cannot be accessed by other machines.

My wish list is that specific chemicals for specific uses could be addressed.

When I went to the link, I felt that the translation could have been missed somewhat, and that the person translating did not know the difference between an herbicide, fungicide, insecticide, or pesticide. The interpreter used the Round Up word with the "Z" word as if they were the same product. They are not.

My frustrations.

Sammy

A 2012 Parkinson's disease - glyphosate paper:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892036212000438
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Another 2012 Parkinson's disease - glyphosate scientific paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/k04267614g27062l/
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After reading this and then having the issue with my dog a couple of weeks ago, I'm glad I don't spray the great majority of my plants! Better safe than sorry and I really enjoy the bees and butterflys (JB's and Cucumber Beetles...not so much)

Tammy

The chemicals mentioned in the lead post are better known as mancozeb and Round Up. Probably the study using nematodes should be regarded as suggestive rather than at all definitive. One chemical that has been more firmly linked to Parkinson's is rotenone, an organic, plant-derived insecticide.

There definitely are strong links between Parkinson and Rotenone. However, I question why bring it into this thread since the EPA has already acted (2006):
"The Agency made its reregistration eligibility determination (RED) for rotenone based on the required data, the current guidelines for conducting acceptable studies to generate such data, and published scientific literature. The Agency has found that currently registered piscicidal (fish-kill) uses of rotenone are eligible for reregistration provided the requirements for reregistration identified in the RED are implemented. In March and April 2006, registrants requested voluntarily cancellation of all livestock, residential and home owner uses, domestic pet uses, and all other uses except for piscicide uses. In July 2006, EPA issued its "Report of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) Tolerance Reassessment Progress and Risk Management Decision (TRED)" in which the Agency indicated its intent to revoke the three tolerance exemptions for rotenone (40 CFR 180.905)."
http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/rotenone_red.pdf
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Also, the purpose of the "more firmly" statement confuses me. This is not a "the cause is A or B" type situation. A disease can have more than one cause. When there is substantial scientific evidence that a chemical is linked to a disease, I recommend that one utilize the Precautionary Principle.