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Air Pollution Linked to Higher Motor Neuron Disease Risk And Faster Decline in Sweden

1/21/2026

New research from Sweden by Jing Wu and colleagues published in JAMA (2026) has shown that long-term exposure to air pollution increased the risk for motor neuron diseases (MND) such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Long-term exposure to air pollution was also found to be associated with poorer prognosis including an increased risk of mortality and need of invasive ventilation after MND diagnosis. Strengths of this nationwide study include the large sample size. The study also has some limitations including not having data on the sources of the specific particulate matter pollutants. Nevertheless, these new results add to the growing body of literature implicating neurotoxicant exposures from environmental and occupational sources in risk and progression of ALS and associated motor neuron diseases.

Link to original article in JAMA

Younger age at onset of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) seen in those who lived near arable crops lands

1/14/2025

Researchers from the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Turin in Italy conducted a study to look at the association between living near croplands and the incidence, age of onset, site of onset and progression rate of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

The earlier age at onset of ALS was seen both in males and females but was greater in males.

The study has some limitations including the inability to use an atmospheric dispersion model and it did not adjust our analysis for socioeconomic/occupational status nor did it include occupational data because these data were only complete in a subset of patients.

Despite these limitations, this new research adds to the growing body of literature implicating exposure to neurotoxicants including pastiches in age at onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.

Link to article

Natural Alternative to the Neurotoxic Solvent n-Hexane Implicated in Parkinsonism Approved for use in Europe

2/22/2023

The EU has approved the natural solvent methyloxolane as a permitted processing aid for manufacturing food ingredients, The EU now has an alternative to the neurotoxic solvent n-hexane. Methyloxolane is an organic liquid solvent and a byproduct of sugarcane processing. The EU has approved the use of methyloxolane as a solvent for the production of fats, oils, cocoa butter and other foods.

n-Hexane which has been implicated in Parkinsonism since 1989 has been recognized as a neurotoxicant for decades but it remained wrongly classified as “suspected neurotoxicant” until the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) launched a process to have it reclassified as “proven neurotoxic for humans.” This new classification will be effective in Europe in June 2023.

Read the entire story by Marc Cerveray published in Food Ingredients First

Link to Pezzoli et al article in PubMed

Living in an areas rich in foliage reduces risk of developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases

1/12/2023

Harvard School of Public Health researcher Jochem Klompmaker and colleagues have published the results of a new study based on residential zip codes suggesting that living in an areas rich in foliage reduces risk of developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Greenness for each zip code was determined using information from the U.S. Geological Survey Protected Areas database. But, this was not true for people living in southern states suggesting there may be more to the story. The trend was also reduced for people living in areas with high rates of poverty again suggesting there is more to this story. After adjusting for air pollution levels in each ZIP code, the relationships between greenness and disease risk weakened, and the influence of parkland fell to almost zero. These findings add to the growing body of literature implicating pollution and other controllable environmental factors in the risk for developing neurodegenerative disease.

Link to story in Alzforum

Link to original peer-reviewed publication in PubMed

Parkinsonism Risk Among Firefighters

9/30/2022

An increased risk of Parkinsonism among firefighters has been reported by researchers from Tufts University (see Kotwani et al., 2022). The study which used an anonymous survey to collect self reported data found that metrics reflecting cumulative/duration of exposure including the number of years working as a firefighter, the number of days per week working, and the number of fires worked correlated with higher reports of Parkinsonian symptoms such as hyposmia, micrographia, and decreased walking pace. Reports of pesticide exposure were also significantly correlated with decreased walking pace, micrographia, and hyposmia among these firefighters. This observation is consistent with findings other studies linking exposures to pesticides and herbicides to Parkinson’s disease. Participation in the Vietnam War which involved risk for exposure to Agent Orange, was also significantly correlated with decreased walking pace and micrographia in this study. These findings add to the growing body of literature implicating occupational exposures to neurotoxicants in the risk for Parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease.

Link to original article

British farmers call for a ban on production of Paraquat citing link to onset of Parkinson's Disease.

4/1/2022

The BBC is reporting on British farmers calling for a ban on the production of Paraquat in the UK saying studies suggest it could be a factor in the onset of Parkinson's Disease. Paraquat was first manufactured in the UK in the early 1960s.

Hundreds of US farm workers are currently pursuing a legal case against the manufacturer of paraquat alleging the manufacture knew the risks and failed to warn consumers. The manufacture says claims of a link between Paraquat and Parkinson's are not supported by scientific evidence. Although many epidemiological studies have looked for a link between the risk for developing Parkinson's disease among workers exposed to paraquat, few have looked at the age at onset.

Julie Plumley's father John was diagnosed with Parkinson's in his 40s. His neighbour Ken Barnes was diagnosed around the same time - he was also in his 40s and had also been using Paraquat for years. Ratner et al., 2014 and Gamache et al., 2019 also observed that exposure to pesticides including paraquat is associated with a younger age at onset of Parkinson's disease.

Link to original BBC story

Coffee, smoking and aspirin are associated with older age at onset of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease

3/17/2022

New research from Carolin Gabbert, and colleagues published in the Journal of Neurology indicates that drinking coffee, smoking and aspirin usage are associated with age at onset in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. In contrast to the findings for coffee, black tea drinking was not associated with age at onset. The association of ibuprofen was not as strong as the association with aspirin while other anti-inflammatory medications showed no association at all with AAO. These findings are consistent with previous research by Ratner et al., 2014 who also found smoking to be associated with a later onset of sporadic Parkinson’s disease. These findings add to the growing body of evidence implicating environmental factors in the age at onset of Parkinson’s disease.

Link to original article on PubMed

Link to Ratner et al. 2014

Dr. Marcia Ratner of Neurotoxiants.com and Dr. James Hendrix of LuMind IDSC were recently interviewed by Dr. Hackie Reitman of DifferentBrains about their thoughts on the state of the art in Alzheimer's research.

12/3/2021

Geospatially Estimating of Exposure to Crop-Applied Pesticides finds Increased Risk for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

10/5/2021

A large study by Andrew and colleagues looking at the risk for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) based on geospatially estimating exposure to crop-applied pesticides has found an association with several neurotoxic herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. The study looked at residence at diagnosis of approximately 26,000 nationally distributed ALS patients, and matched non-ALS controls. The he residency data was then related to pesticide exposure risk based on county-level U.S. Geological Survey data on applications of 423 pesticides. The authors concluded that's their findings are consistent with the hypothesis that certain pesticides have neurotoxic effects that increase risk of neurodegenerative disease. Although this study did not look at duration or magnitude of pesticide exposure as this relates to age at onset of ALS, it nevertheless provides additional support for neurotoxic chemical exposures as risk factors for this neurodegenerative disease.

Link to article

Altered Hippocampal Response to Systemic Administration of an α5 type GABA-A Receptor Modulator in a Rat Model of Alzheimer’s disease

6/3/2021

α5 subunit containing GABA type A receptors (a5GABAARs) are highly expressed in the hippocampus of humans and animals. The functioning of these receptors is altered in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and by neuroinflammation and injuries to the brain (reviewed by Jacobs 2019). Ratner and colleagues (Heliyon, 2021) show for the first time that systemic administration of a5IA, a selective negative modulator of a5GABAARs, increases peak ripple amplitudes in wild type adult rats but has no effect on peak ripple amplitudes in the TgF344-AD rat model of Alzheimer's disease which also shows elevated plasma concentrations of AB42 and AB40 during the prodromal state of the disease when memory function is still intact. These findings demonstrate the selective sensitivity of the healthy versus diseased hippocampus to chemicals that modulate inhibitory neurotransmission. These findings also indicate that tonic inhibitory neurotransmission is altered in this highly translational rat model of Alzheimer's disease.

Link to article

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Dr. Marcia Ratner shares and reviews the news.

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Last update: January 13, 2026

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Neurotoxicants.com is strictly an information and news website about the associations between chemical exposure and neurological disease. The information provided on this site is meant to complement and not replace any advice or information from your healthcare professional. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. While every care has been exercised in compiling and publishing the data contained in these pages, Neurotoxicants.com accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions to of the information provided on this website. Neurotoxicants.com cannot be held liable for typographical errors, layout error or misinformation contained herein. Copyright © 2015-2026, Dr. Marcia H. Ratner, DABT, Proprietor and Principal Consultant, D.B.A. Neurotoxicants.com is registered with Dun and Bradstreet. All Rights Reserved. Privately funded; Neurotoxicants.com does not accept or host paid advertising. Neurotoxicants.com does not accept payment from any external influences which could affect the objectivity of the editorial content of this website.

Updated January 13, 2026

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