Several studies indicate a nexus between Parkinsons & Industrial & chemical pollution - everything from from pesticides, To NOX to long gone steel production etc. The same relationship appears worldwide as well. . PD & Pollution: Something in the Air | Parkinson's Foundation Disclaimer - of course there's an obvious genetic factor, but still - it makes one think how close someone's family members suffering from Parkinsons might have been to such environmental sources.
i have no doubt that many of our afflictions are caused by one type of pollution or another. many things considered 'safe' really haven't been studied. what are micro plastics doing to us in the long run?
I the far off future, they will use it instead of carbon dating to figure out how old our bones are. It is a forever chemical; isn't it????
Does “rust belt” have any connection to road salt, or is it a reference to steel production, and maybe coal too?
looking at the map, there's a lot of purple down south. not sure where the rust belt comes in, except the drill down data may show it better. since most of it seems eastward, perhaps the pollution follows wind patterns? but i thought all of our factories had scrubbers. imagine the future with more factories here. they do admit that the science is still young.
EPA rules are usually on a 10 year implementation track. There's NO overnight surprise factor; unlike the current administration. News agencies usually don't report that when they claim that the EPA rules is shutting down the factory and killing the town. Bottom-Line; management knew the compliance deadline and decided to line their own pockets than plan a staged retrofit to get the factory compliant. Re: west coast contamination; looks to be isolated to the heavily farmed regions. I'm guessing pesticides (direct chemical contamination) that leaches into the ground water. ie. Erin Brockovich. YMMV
Maybe any medical problems are from prior days in that area when Kaiser steel was belching out serious pollution which affected that generation, which then had kids. I r c - the steel mill ran from the 40s on into the '80s
There was some mention locally on cbc radio one, about testing current generation of kids in the Trail, BC area, for lead.levels.
The good (?) thing about lead is that analytical (on blood or hair) is very accurate to very low concentrations. Plenty of history of medical effects, so there is always a lab that one can access. Not the cheapest analysis around, but ya can't have everything. == Top post shows a bit more than two-fold range of variation. That is enough to generate interest in exploring the many factors that might make contributions. Post facto epidemiology is a pain though.