Original Article

Professional exposure to pesticides and Parkinson disease†

  1. Alexis Elbaz MD, PhD1,2,3,*,
  2. Jacqueline Clavel MD, PhD4,5,
  3. Paul J. Rathouz PhD6,
  4. Frédéric Moisan MSc1,2,
  5. Jean-Philippe Galanaud MD1,2,
  6. Bernard Delemotte MD7,
  7. Annick Alpérovitch MSc, MD1,2,
  8. Christophe Tzourio MD, PhD1,2

Article first published online: 13 APR 2009

DOI: 10.1002/ana.21717

Issue

Annals of Neurology

Annals of Neurology

Volume 66, Issue 4, pages 494–504, October 2009

Additional Information

How to Cite

Elbaz, A., Clavel, J., Rathouz, P. J., Moisan, F., Galanaud, J.-P., Delemotte, B., Alpérovitch, A. and Tzourio, C. (2009), Professional exposure to pesticides and Parkinson disease. Ann Neurol., 66: 494–504. doi: 10.1002/ana.21717

Author Information

  1. 1

    INSERM, U708, Paris, France

  2. 2

    UPMC, Univ Paris 06, Paris, France

  3. 3

    Département santé-travail, Institut de Veille Sanitaire, Saint-Maurice, France

  4. 4

    INSERM, U754, Villejuif, France

  5. 5

    Univ Paris 11, Villejuif, France

  6. 6

    Department of Health Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

  7. 7

    Mutualité Sociale Agricole, Bagnolet, France

*Inserm, U708, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, 47 boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75651 Paris Cedex 13, France

  1. †

    Potential conflict of interest: Nothing to report.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 8 OCT 2009
  2. Article first published online: 13 APR 2009
  3. Accepted manuscript online: 13 APR 2009 12:00AM EST
  4. Manuscript Accepted: 20 MAR 2009
  5. Manuscript Revised: 23 FEB 2009
  6. Manuscript Received: 7 NOV 2008

Funded by

  • Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
  • MSA
  • Agence Nationale de la Recherche
  • Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire de l'Environnement et du Travail
  • French Ministry of the Environment
  • France Parkinson
  • Ministère de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (273K)

Abstract

Objective

We studied the relation between Parkinson disease (PD) and professional exposure to pesticides in a community-based case-control study conducted in a population characterized by a high prevalence of exposure. Our objective was to investigate the role of specific pesticide families and to perform dose-effect analyses.

Methods

PD cases (n = 224) from the Mutualité Sociale Agricole (France) were matched to 557 controls free of PD affiliated with the same health insurance. Pesticide exposure was assessed using a 2-phase procedure, including a case-by-case expert evaluation. Analyses of the relation between PD and professional exposure to pesticides were first performed overall and by broad category (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides). Analyses of 29 pesticide families defined based on a chemical classification were restricted to men. Multiple imputation was used to impute missing values of pesticide families. Data were analyzed using conditional logistic regression, both using a complete-case and an imputed dataset.

Results

We found a positive association between PD and overall professional pesticide use (odds ratio [OR] = 1.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1–3.1), with a dose-effect relation for the number of years of use (p = 0.01). In men, insecticides were associated with PD (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.1–4.3), in particular organochlorine insecticides (OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.2–5.0). These associations were stronger in men with older onset PD than in those with younger onset PD, and were characterized by a dose-effect relation in the former group.

Interpretation

Our results support an association between PD and professional pesticide exposure, and show that some pesticides (ie, organochlorine insecticides) may be more particularly involved. Ann Neurol 2009;66:494–504

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (273K)