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How Heroin Addicts Helped Scientists Link Pesticides and Parkinson's
carmendrahl writes "Exposure to certain pesticides, including rotenone and paraquat, has been associated with a higher incidence of Parkinson's disease in population studies. But how did scientists come to think of a link between Parkinson's disease and pesticides in the first place? The answer involves the 1980s drug underworld, where criminals were synthesizing modified versions of illegal drugs such as heroin to stay one step ahead of the law. One molecule in some designer heroin cocktails, 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), breaks down in the human body into 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+), a nerve cell killer. Heroin addicts exposed to this molecule got Parkinson's-like symptoms. As for the connection to pesticides, MPP+ is a weed killer that was used in the 70s. It also closely resembles the structure of the pesticide paraquat. The saga, therefore, put scientists on high alert to the possibility that pesticides might play a role in developing Parkinson's."
Usually, dumping random chemicals into people is considered unethical. We can't do proper science on pesticides due to strong chemical lobbies, but thanks to our punish-the-sick attitude towards drug addiction, we have a large body of "volunteers" for human trials of unknown chemicals. This is a strong argument for prohibition: "if the illegal drug market goes away, we can't test financially-protected drugs, and non-criminals might get sick!"
The original researcher wrote a book on his discovery:
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Frozen-Addicts-William-Langston/dp/0679424652
MPP is a byproduct of sloppy meperidine synthesis, NOT heroin. Meperidine is "Demerol."
Once again the War on Freedom (drugs, terror, etc) spreads its casualties in the strangest ways. The largest danger a heroin addict poses is to himself.
The saga, therefore, put scientists on high alert to the possibility that pesticides might play a role in developing Parkinson's.
I'm sure we'll see, as usual, comments from the Big Ag shills telling us there's nothing wrong with pesticides, and that organic is a waste of money, etc etc etc.
The thing to remember is that all of these studies only study the effect of one or two pesticides at a time. What about cumulative effects of many dozens of different chemicals? The government can say something like "20 ppm of this chemical is safe" and "3ppb of that chemical is safe" but it is rather doubtful that exposure to "safe" levels of 20 different pesticides, cumulatively, is safe.
70 years into the so-called "Green Revolution" and it's still fraught with safety problems. All we've really managed to do is poison the environment, and cause a population explosion that is going to take some serious dealing with.
That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
pesticides might play a role in developing Parkinson's
You mean toxic chemicals might be poisonous? I for one never saw that one coming.
What could possibly go wrong?
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Not that it really matters, there is a topic of interest that you may want to look over.
http://www.shadownews.org/michael-j-fox-crew-come-down-with-parkinsons-disease/
Of course, as you can imagine, shadow news is a completely irrelevant newsgroup. Worth a read-over at least. But heroin abuse has been long linked to Parkinsons. People have been known to have family histories of it, and for those people, you have my sympathies.
And yet you avoid the obvious. Pathetic.
Or how about Michael J. Fox binging with Wm. S. Burroughs back in the 80s? Makes you think about Family Ties in a whole new light.
Now he's getting back in the swing with Rick Simpson oil. Crazy damn world , isn't it?
My stepfather was a banana farmer and exposed to some nasty chemicals. He has parkinsons and blames the pesticides. So reading this seems to support his belief. Just one data point and proves nothing, but personally interesting.
Although mptp causes symptoms similar to parkinson's, it does it in a completely different way. mptp is instantaneous and total. Parkinsons is gradual and involves the mis-folding of alpha-synuclein proteins which mptp does not. If anything, mptp has been a disastrous wrong turning that has put parkinsons research back years.
Aren't many pesticides designed to disrupt the nervous systems of insects? We are all animals, it stands to reason that it would harm humans too.