Impact of dietary exposure to food contaminants on the risk of Parkinson's disease

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the association of Parkinson's disease (PD) with dietary exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and methylmercury (MeHg) in a community with increased exposure levels. A total of 79 clinically verified idiopathic PD cases and 154 controls matched by sex and age were examined in this case-control study in the Faroe Islands. Blood and hair samples were collected and a questionnaire recorded lifetime information on residence, dietary habits, smoking history, and occupational exposure to solvents, pesticides, and metals. Both unconditional and conditional logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) in regard to relevant exposure variables. Increased ORs for dietary intakes of whale meat and blubber during adult life were statistically significant. The ORs for occupational exposure to solvents, pesticides and metals also suggested an increased risk for PD. Current serum concentrations of summation operator PCB and related contaminants suggested slightly increased ORs, although only beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (beta-HCH) was statistically significant. Increased intake of whale meat and blubber in adult life was significantly associated with PD, thus suggesting a positive association between previous exposure to marine food contaminants and development of PD.

Persistent organochlorine pesticides in serum and risk of Parkinson disease

“…28 Only 3 studies, all casecontrol, have examined serum organochlorine levels in relation to PD, all with samples collected several years after PD onset. [29][30][31] Two of these found statistically significant increases in odds of PD with higher serum ␤-HCH concentrations, 30,31 whereas the other found a significant association with DDE. 29 In only 1 of these did they report on dieldrin, 31 but all subjects had nondetectable levels.…”

Epidemiology and etiology of Parkinson’s disease: a review of the evidence

“…One casecontrol study observed no associations for intake of zinc, manganese, or copper [492]. A small case-control study (54 cases) reported higher blood levels of mercury in cases than controls [380], a finding not confirmed in another case-control study [313].…”

“…Some studies assessed metal exposure overall through questionnaires without collecting information on occupational history, an approach that also captures recreational metal exposure. Of studies that examined exposure to heavy metals overall, only one reported an increased risk (OR11.84, 95% CI 1.08-130.37) [358], whereas the others found no association [293,313,381]. Another study found no association for residential proximity to steel plants [146].…”

“…One study reported an OR of 7.0 (p value <0.05) [289] and another an OR of 10.9 (95% CI 2.5-48.0) [301]. The remaining 19 case-control studies that analyzed results from pesticide exposure overall reported no association [131,136,137,141,142,144,145,[305][306][307][308][309][310][311][312][313][314][315][316][317].…”

“…Occupational exposure to organic solvents was associated with increased risk of PD in two case-control studies [154,309] whilst in another study, the increased risk was confined to men [292]. Six other case-control studies, including the large (767 cases) European multicentre study [300], observed no association between organic solvents and PD [300,308,310,313,317,393]. One case-control study found an increased risk with longer duration of exposure (OR 3.59, 95% CI 1.26-19.26 for 20-30 years of exposure versus not exposed, p for trend 0.04) although no association was observed overall [381].…”