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------------------------ I would appreciate anyone's comments regarding any correlation between persons having PD and also having an extremely sensitive reaction of their nervous system when exposed to certain chemicals, pesticides, and herbi- sides. Last weekend I was in our Barnes & Noble bookstore browsing through their Bargain Books (all hardcover books, if that matters). Within minutes I was aware of a very strong "chemical" smell in the air and apparently eminating from the thousands of books. My lungs and throat felt very strange and I thought I might pass out so I left the building and went home. For the next several hours I felt weak and had difficulty breath- ing and I trembled all over. The chemical smell of the bookstore stayed with me for two days. My husband, who was with me, had no reaction; indeed, he was not even aware of the chemical. I have had several similar reactions in the past when I was in a closed-up house and a Mosquito Control truck went by, spraying insecticide at our lawns and which immediately seeped into the house. No one else in the house could detect it but to me it was over-powering. I reacted the same as described above. The same thing occurred when a "duster" airplane kept swooping over our apartment complex which was next to farmland, spraying the crops with, I later found out, a herbicide. I have always had the theory that my young-age-onset PD (33) was caused by my concentrated exposure to DDT as a baby living in a bug-infested southern state. (Our small house we rented had been dowsed with the insecticide by the owner - this was in 1944.) What I am wondering is could my extreme sensitivity to the chemicals, herbicides, and pesticides as described above be an indication that my body cannot absorb the toxicity of these chemicals the way most other people can? If this is so, wouldn't it help substantiate my theory of the cause of my YAOPD, and shouldn't the medical researchers be concentrating on TOXINS as being the cause of this horrific affliction? ___________________________ Janice Long (54/20 yrs.)