New Delhi: Moderate level of fine particle pollution is associated with a 56 per cent higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, new research in the US has found.
Previous studies have shown that fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, can cause inflammation in the brain, which is “a known mechanism by which Parkinson’s disease could develop,” according to lead researcher Brittany Krzyzanowski from Barrow Neurological Institute, Arizona.
The researchers also found that the relationship between air pollution and Parkinson’s disease was not the same in every part of the country, and that it varied in strength by region. They have published their findings in the journal Neurology.
Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterised by tremors and impaired muscular coordination.
In this study, the researchers identified nearly 90,000 people with the neurological disease from the US’s Medicare dataset of about 22 million people. Those identified were then geocoded to the neighbourhood of their residence, which enabled the researchers to calculate the rates of the disease within each region.
The average annual concentrations of fine particulate matter in these specific regions were also calculated.
Thus, the researchers at Barrow were able to identify an association between a person’s previous exposure to fine particulate matter and their later risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
