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英政府の独立科学顧問機関、殺虫剤に関する委員会は殺虫剤の長期曝露がパーキンソン病等の原因ではないかとして、殺虫剤の中毒作用の調査を進言した。パーキンソン病の原因は未だ特定されるに至っておらず、加齢が主要因だが遺伝子と化学物質が引き起こしているのではないかと言われている。昨年11月に殺虫剤に関する委員会でパーキンソン病と殺虫剤には何らかの相関が見られる、但しその毒性のメカニズムの解明また影響している物質及び物質群の特定は出来ていない、と結論付けている。食品環境省は、これまでのところ殺虫剤の使用がパーキンソン病に関係していないという複数の調査があるが現在得られている根拠に基づけば完全に無関係と判明したわけではないので調査を続ける、としている。
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,7890,1390170,00.html
Parkinson's 'could be linked to pesticides'
Science advisers call for research into toxic link to brain disease
James Meikle, health correspondent
Friday January 14, 2005
The Guardian
The government's independent scientific advisers are stepping up the pressure on Whitehall to investigate the long-standing fear that the widespread use of pesticides against fungi, insects and weeds has increased risk of disease in humans.
Their demand for studies to show whether and how the chemicals may cause the nervous system disorder Parkinson's disease coincides with a separate call for improved measures of exposure to pesticides, because of possible links with prostate cancer.
The Department of Health's committee on carcinogenicity has stopped short of calling for new research on prostate cancer, but wants better monitoring of chemical use.
The advisory committee on pesticides recommends laboratory research into the toxic mechanisms that might be involved in Parkinson's.
It says it would be "useful" to set up long-term health studies of workers making or using pesticides, to see whether they replicate the association found in other countries between chemical exposure and incidence of the disorder.
Years of research into Parkinson's has not discovered what causes nerve cells to die in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra. Ageing is a prime factor but a combination of genes and pollutants or pesticides is believed to be the trigger.
Studies have so far failed to find a definite relationship with well-water drinking, farming, rural living, and pesticide exposure, but scientists at Aberdeen University, and in Finland, Romania, Italy and Malta are nearing the end of a EU-funded study investigating some of these factors.
The pesticides committee concluded in November, in a so-far unpublicised finding, that a review of the existing evidence indicated a correlation between pesticides and Parkinson's but "did not point to a particular toxic mechanism or a hazard from a specific compound or group of compounds".
The review by the Medical Research Council's Institute of Environment and Health found significant gaps in research and suggested new work to take into account the fact that the exposure to pesticides in Britain might be different to that in other countries, because of differences in agriculture, climate and regulations.
If there was enough historical information, it would be helpful to discover whether the incidence and prevalence of Parkinson's had changed substantially in the past 50 years.
Elizabeth Sigmund of Opin (Organophosphates Information Network) said a high proportion of those on its database had complained of symptoms like Parkinsonism, the group of disorders to which Parkinson's belongs.
"The government has been disgracefully dilatory. It knows farmers have been exposed to a variety of toxic chemicals. It is high time it took research very seriously and thought about how it can compensate people who are obliged to use such chemicals. I think there is beginning to be a sea-change in attitudes."
Linda Kelly, chief executive of the Parkinson's Disease Society, said that if scientists could understand how the disease was triggered, "you could perhaps understand what causes Parkinson's in the first place, and that could deliver better treatments".
The food and environment department, Defra, said some studies had found no association between pesticide use and Parkinson's, but added: "A link between pesticides exposure and Parkinson's disease cannot be discounted based on the evidence currently available. That is why further research is required."
The pesticides safety directorate was investigating the best way forward.
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