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----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Greenberg" <[log in to unmask]> To: "Occ-Env-Med-L" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 6:45 AM Subject: [occ-env-med-l] NYT: Parkinson's & TCE debate Exposed to Solvent, Worker Faces Hurdles http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/us/25toxic.html?_r=1&ref=health [Please visit the original website to view the whole article. - Mod.] By FELICITY BARRINGER Published: January 24, 2009 BEREA, Ky. — When the University of Kentucky published new research in 2008 suggesting that exposure to a common industrial solvent might increase the risk for Parkinson's disease, the moment was a source of satisfaction to Ed Abney, a 53-year-old former tool-and-die worker. Mr. Abney, now sidelined by Parkinson's, had spent more than two decades up to his elbows in a drum of the solvent, trichloroethylene, while he cleaned metal piping at a now-shuttered Dresser Industries plant here. The university study had focused on him and his factory co-workers who worked near the same 55-gallon drum of the vaguely sweet-smelling chemical. It found that 27 workers had either the anxiety, tremors, rigidity or other symptoms associated with Parkinson's, or had motor skills that were significantly impaired, compared with a healthy peer group. The study, Mr. Abney thought, was the scientific evidence he needed to claim worker's compensation benefits. He was wrong. The medical researchers would not sign the form attesting that Mr. Abney's disease was linked to his work. Individuals like Mr. Abney are caught between the conflicting imperatives of science and law — and there is a huge gap between what researchers are discovering about environmental contaminants and what they can prove about their impact on disease. The gap has ensured that only a tiny fraction of worker's compensation payments are received by those who were exposed to harmful substances at work. "It's awfully difficult for any doctor or researcher to say to an individual: 'You have this disease because you were exposed at this time,' " said J. Paul Leigh, a professor of public health sciences at the University of California, Davis. ... -- Gary N. Greenberg, MD MPH Sysop / Moderator Occ-Env-Med-L MailList Univ. N. Carolina School Public Health Medical Director http://www.UrbanMin.org Urban Ministries of Wake County Open Door Clinic http://www.OpenDoorDocs.org [log in to unmask] http://occhealthnews.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn