Is Parkinson's disease related to pesticide use? | DW Documentary

diagnosis parkinson's disease my name is ulrich alexman i live in hagen near the toito burger forest he's a gardener by profession [Music] people with parkinson's tend to have reduced facial expressiveness i didn't have that before but now it's started [Music] it does make me wonder a colleague of mine also has it a retired gardener with parkinson's a farmer with parkinson's an agricultural worker with parkinson's they've spent a lifetime working on the fields and were all diagnosed with the same disease [Music] [Music] is the next day we were cutting roses again and the same thing happened eventually i went to the doctor and said something's wrong with my arm my hand they examined me and did tests and it was clear that i had parkinson's disease that was 14 years ago he was 46. today he takes 13 pills a day some to help with the tremor he does exercises speech therapy and occupational therapy patients who have parkinson's disease suffer from the fact that they're fully aware but trapped in their own body it starts with changes to their gait there are movements and the loss of facial expressions which can have a negative impact on relationships they can end up completely immobile we have patients who are completely bedridden [Music] then there are people like mr ellixman who is a very active patient who stays active who enjoys life he's a fighter who is tough [Music] my impression is that we're seeing more parkinson's and the patients are much younger now than they used to be in our rural area at least i think we're seeing a significant increase in parkinson's disease [Music] is this subjective impression backed up by scientific evidence [Music] the netherlands is home to one of the best-known parkinson's clinics in europe my name is my name is bas bloom i'm a neurologist and head of a large parkinson's research group here at radbout university in niemigen [Music] the robot umc is unknown about umc is a large university medical center where we have a large clinic for people with parkinson's we see patients from across the netherlands as well as germany parkinson's rates are rising faster than any other neurological disease worldwide the data and publications are out there we've even called it a parkinson's pandemic it feels strange to use that term right now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic but a pandemic is a disease that's spreading globally quickly and that is very harmful to people so in that sense parkinson's really is a pandemic around the world [Music] and we think that environmental factors are largely to blame what kind of environmental factors could be contributing to a rise in parkinson's disease in rural areas [Music] of environmental health at the university of california in los angeles ritz originally from germany has been studying first of all i look to see where there were a lot of death certificates listing parkinson's as the cause i noticed some clusters in california's central valley [Music] nearly a quarter of the vegetables grown in the us come from this valley cause [Music] people usually think that rural living is healthier so why all this parkinson's disease in one study she found central valley residents who lived close to fields sprayed with pesticides had an increased risk for parkinson's of 75 percent it's a neurodegenerative disease which raises the question what could be causing this nerve damage the central valley is the most heavily farmed region in the u.s this is industrialized agriculture on a massive scale spanning an area larger than the netherlands in this valley agricultural chemicals are used in this valley both fertilizers and pesticides pesticides such as insecticides for example are among the few chemicals that are applied to the environment they kill insects and the way they do that is by targeting their nervous systems the human nervous system isn't really all that different it's more complex but the basic building blocks are the same if you apply toxins to those basic building blocks it also does damage to human nerves [Music] a rural area in northeast germany not far from the city of osnabruck the talman family own a farm here my name is wilfried tayman he's here my name is wilfred talman i've been a farmer all my life i used to be very robust but that's starting to change i'm growing weaker yeah so love it's getting harder to walk and to grasp things everything's slowing down including my mind parkinson's is affecting everything that's what happens [Music] wilfried telmon is now 75. as a farmer he's been using pesticides all his life [Music] yeah i used to spray pesticides there'd be a fog of it everywhere it had a strong odor that weed killer odor no one really ever gave it a second thought we didn't wear gloves or face masks nothing sometimes you'd get some of it on your hands [Music] there wasn't when the nozzles clogged up we used to put the tube to our lips to blow it free the telmons didn't realize that the substances they were using could cause long-term damage to their health there's another farm just a few kilometers away the farmer knows what happened to his neighbor but he's still going to spray his turnip fields my name is haman durman i'm a conventional farmer and i operate a farm with about 150 hectares of fields durman says conventional farming is very different nowadays more modern and much safer it's quite simple pesticides keep my yields high enough for me to keep my farm running and that's what matters to me in my farm farming today is much more environmentally friendly than 30 years ago we use very little product per hectare and it's applied with great precision the pesticide nozzles are high tech and come with gps so they keep track of what's already been sprayed they calibrate the optimal doses and turn themselves off automatically that would have been unthinkable 30 or 35 years ago [Applause] either we've leased this land from them and are farming of course it's rough when you retire and find yourself dealing with a disease like that you know how it's going to end and it's just hard and sad too but what can i say risk is a part of life of mine too i might drive home today and get broadsided by a car and that would be it that's just how it is wilfried talmon says his neighbor is a good farmer who's careful in his use of pesticides telmon has done some reading on parkinson's disease and knows that genetics could play a role but scientists say that's only a minor factor a lot of times you hear parkinson's is hereditary but that's not true in our case we are or at least i am convinced that it's environmental from all those pesticides there's no way to know i'm 100 sure that's what it is well i don't know other people get parkinson's too frank elstner and that guy from the television crime series what's his name fisher ottfried fisher has parkinson's so how did he get it but you only know him because he's famous muhammad ali [Music] germany doesn't keep much by way of official records on which pesticides have been used where for decades germany kept no records at all in california it's different in california california passed a law that all agricultural pesticide use had to be reported that database had been around since the early 70s we compared that data to where parkinson's patients lived and found that they were far more likely to live near fields where certain products had been applied this study was possible because california has long maintained careful records on the use of pesticides and in the central valley where farming is heavily industrialized they use a lot of pesticides over the decades more than 4 000 substances were used here researchers concluded that some two dozen pesticides were particularly suspicious and further studies showed many indeed seemed linked to parkinson's disease in two cases one an herbicide the other a fungicide the link was clear the eu banned the herbicide paraquat in 2007. the fungicide mancosepp was finally banned in late 2020 though farmers have until 2022 to use up supplies the injected series isn't neurotoxin we already knew that insecticides are neurotoxins but when it comes to herbicides weed killers we tend to think well we aren't plants we don't have the same physiology as a plant and something that's harmful to a plant isn't necessarily harmful to humans but certain substances that act as herbicides also damage nerves in the brain that have to do with parkinson's shading researchers are sure about the link to paraquad and mancosepp but dozens of other substances are still under investigation and even less is known about what happens when such substances are combined say in water of course some pesticides are more dangerous than others but you only know which one's after the fact if you want to protect public health to protect as many people as possible as best as possible then you have to be very careful with these substances and minimize their use or make the switch to organic farming [Music] i haven't used a single chemical product on this farm in 30 years i went into politics in the early 2000s and i've been a member of the committee on agriculture in the european parliament for 11 years i advocate for organic farming the kind of farming i do myself farmers have been brainwashed these past 30 40 years we've been told things are less dangerous than those other people might say that it's not harming the environment but we're starting to see more and more side effects that weren't on the packaged labels or that simply weren't known to the public or to farmers themselves why do we have to use weed killers not because it's the only option but because given the current regulatory policies in place in germany we can't stop using pesticides i also think we'd be hurting consumers if we did that i'm sure we could cut down here or there using other forms of farming or using other technologies but we don't have to simply accept these risks it's a matter of life and death if we ban pesticides in germany okay fine but then we have to stop importing food from abroad whenever we make a decision like that cheap imports pour in to fill the gap [Music] those prices stay low hours go up and that ends up hurting german farmers [Applause] when it comes to earning a living people are generally willing to take greater risks because they benefit from the advantages of those risks they think well so what if i walk a bit more slowly or have a bit of tremor in old age people don't realize how bad parkinson's is it's more than just a tremor and walking more slowly is off to pay a visit to a friend janice johannes is a colleague a gardener we live in the same town i got parkinson's first he got it two years later that's when i really started to wonder why did we both get this what did you say you do look a bit better than last time let's sit down somewhere johannes houndhorst is 68 years old he was diagnosed with parkinson's 12 years ago how are the grandkids do they visit you that's a nice truck you have there last year i had to build something like this in rehab too to train fine motor skills you can't let up on that kind of thing [Music] i was diagnosed in 2006 and johannes in 2008 i think that did set off alarm bells and then i heard about other colleagues who were diagnosed i started doing research and realized what was causing it and causing other diseases not just parkinson's but cancer and so forth uh [Music] since then he went downhill fast in just a year and a half he really went downhill just imagine in just a year and a half you end up in a care home that's really shocking right now i'm feeling pretty wrung out i have to admit it's hard to see what's happened to him how it keeps getting worse it's really really hard for me and i know i'll be thinking about it for days each visit is a glimpse into his own future [Music] you can live a long time with this disease but of course it gets worse as it progresses difficulty with sleep and so on and so forth it's an incredibly complex disease and for people who have it it's truly awful [Music] if you stay active if you get an early diagnosis you can treat the disease more easily i hope i can stay active as long as possible an estimated 400 000 people in germany have parkinson's disease how many might have had contact with pesticides is unknown [Music] when it comes to pesticide victims how many are too many you can't put a number on that everyone who works with pesticides needs to protect themselves the european commission's department of health and food safety is responsible for addressing pesticide associated risks we asked the department what they do to protect citizens from pesticides that could contribute to parkinson's disease the reply came in writing [Music] [Music] but when will those measures be taken many respected scientists are convinced that many pesticides contribute to parkinson's disease cancer and hormonal abnormalities it would entail taking half of all the products off the market and then the industry and farmers associations would be up in arms they'd say the risk is negligible it's as far as the industry is concerned there's no proof that pesticides are to blame wilfried telmon used various pesticides over the years so which one made him sick or was it all of them mixed together and what about other environmental toxins he might have been exposed to could the pesticides hermann derman is using today make him sick in the future how long will it take before there's definitive proof it takes forever as a rule you could say it takes 10 years for approval then the product is in use for 20 years then it's a 10-year struggle to get it off the market because oops turns out it's more dangerous than we thought who does ulrich alexman blame for his disease i blame the pesticide manufacturers and the farmers association the association has to make us aware of these dangers to monitor it they completely neglected their duty in that respect in 2014 i went to a lawyer and we filed a legal complaint if i win my case the farmers association might have to pay me an additional pension ventino parkinson's disease is not on their list of occupational diseases the trade association says their regulations and the goal is to get this on the official list of occupational diseases why shouldn't parkinson's be recognized as an occupational disease there's proof that pesticides cause or contribute to this disease bordeaux france is the world's largest wine growing region huge amounts of pesticides are used here but france is a step further in acknowledging the link in 2012 parkinson's was listed as an occupational disease for agricultural and vineyard workers what does that mean for affected workers i'm 48 years old and spent 25 years working in the vineyards that's where i was poisoned by chemicals now i have parkinson's on the 8th of june 2012 i was poisoned working on the vines they'd been sprayed several times and when we arrived to tie the grapevine drops spattered on my face that substance attacked my face my eyes my mouth my stomach is this is where it happened at the chateau venue winery the symptoms started appearing gradually over the next weeks [Music] i started having more and more physical problems i had difficulties with movement i couldn't lift my feet i lost my bearings i couldn't go shopping alone anymore and i suffered from extreme unbearable fatigue [Music] because parkinson's is an occupational disease they'll top up my pension but i have to work another 20 years and i have no idea where my plus sylvie berger will get a contribution to her pension why shouldn't helexman his pension is administered by the agricultural industry trade association's social security program eliximon filed suit against them four years ago we asked the trade association why they've refused his pension application the reply came promptly they say it's not their decision to make the decision lies with the federal labor ministry in berlin and berlin had the following to say due to the rigorous requirements that apply to a complex disease such as parkinson's the advisory committee is unlikely to reach a decision until 2021 at the earliest one this is the first time anyone has given him any sort of time frame for a decision however vague four years after filing his suit it's important that france has acknowledged this as an occupational illness that gives me a tiny bit of hope that germany might do the same [Music] the courts in bordeaux have made a decision on how much money silvi berger will receive [Music] they issued a ruling on my degree of disability 25 that amounts to about five euros a day about 150 euros a month which she started receiving already is she satisfied for me my goal was to raise awareness so it won't just be brushed off the risk is real the employers large wineries need to protect their ordinary workers to change how they think about us little people the people tending to the vines sylvie berger has also filed a lawsuit against her former employer asking for damages it's an unpopular move in a region where the local economy depends on wine even though no one is openly criticizing me i can tell by how they act that they're uncomfortable with me with what i have to say the courts have already ruled against her employer but the payment hasn't been determined yet she and her husband are desperate to leave the area we're still waiting for the final decision about damages right now we can't make any plans for the future [Music] now the ordinary workers of madok and borderlay can get a hearing all those ordinary workers on those grand wine estates who are simply invisible and whose lives are ruined by their work [Music] a wine grower who died in 2012 of work-related cancer i'm a spokesperson for alerted toxique poison alert i'm fighting for my father [Music] i promised my father i would go to court and do everything i could when he died in 2012 no one ever talked about pesticides [Music] this kind of wine making generates profits at the expense of health that's unacceptable i believe it's possible to produce wine in a clean way in a way that preserves people's health from the producer all the way to the consumer that will require a major rethink of the industry and many winemakers are trying to put a stop to that that's why we're fighting it's people like these who don't want radical change conventional grape growing methods are still the rule in bordeaux in this moist climate they say they can't do without anti-fungals and other products without risking their harvest [Music] without agrochemicals they say this area would never have become the world's leading wine growing region and vice president of the gerhond chamber of agriculture i have 12 hectares vasa says he would be happy to cut down on pesticides since they're expensive but he can't do without them this is the storage room for chemicals up here are the dangerous products insecticides and here are the fungicides for example against mildew and down here herbicides to fight weeds year i'll probably spend 400 euros per hectare on pesticides that amounts to almost 5 000 euros [Music] we used to play on chemical canisters when we were kids we played with containers that had skull and crossbones labels on them [Music] i've always been around pesticides always [Music] says he hasn't suffered any health effects [Music] as you get older you might start to worry more about getting sick maybe you're not as robust anymore we're all different when it comes to our resistance to disease to infections take the sun some people aren't harmed by it others get allergies or even skin cancer [Music] nowadays we have to wait after spraying before entering the vineyard 48 hours that didn't exist before we also have to wait to harvest which didn't exist before we used to spray and then eat the fruit right away we've made a lot of progress in preventing health problems [Music] fields are treated 20 or even 30 times a year against insects fungal diseases weeds no one can say with a straight face that all of that evaporates into thin air no it ends up on your dinner plate is that also the case for wine from bordeaux to find out valerie mara sends samples from the region to a laboratory since 2008 we've had 15 bottles analyzed each bottle contained traces of between 9 and 16 different pesticides in the last bottle the lab found a substance that was banned in 2008 we have no idea how much of these substances are being sprayed our analyses show what is really happening in the wine growing industry the lab results also show that the pesticides don't simply vanish without a trace division we know that pesticides are bad for our health in the netherlands we've found pesticide traces in the homes of farmers to buy there's data showing that pesticides can be found in milk sold in supermarkets in the supermarket there are pesticides in our air escaped pesticides [Music] my name is martin my name is marin cruz i work for team integrated environmental monitoring we have a project monitoring pesticide pollution in the air [Music] in germany there's no ongoing monitoring of pesticide pollution in the air that's why we decided to carry out a study to gather this data at various locations they set up collection devices like these all across germany we found something everywhere in the bavarian forest right in the middle of it we went three kilometers into the forest and even though the trees always act as a filter we still found traces of six different pesticides so i assume there's no way to escape pesticide pollution that it's everywhere in germany that would mean that everyone in germany is exposed to pesticides of course the industry always says the amounts are tiny we only want to kill insects not people these tiny amounts won't cause acute harm but if you're exposed to low doses over long periods it can be just as toxic the agar agricultural industry association is based in frankfort it represents many companies that manufacture agrochemicals how do they see the connection between pesticides and parkinson's disease [Music] as a public health researcher which is what i am i would say we have to be more careful [Music] we know that people with high levels of exposure face a higher risk of parkinson's and it's higher by quite a lot [Music] i'd say farmers and local populations are like canaries in the coal mine if we find a heightened risk there we can't exclude the possibility that there are similar effects in the wider population planted wild flowers in this meadow about nine months ago when work on this film began this meadow makes me happy it's on my way to occupational and physical therapy so i'm here at least twice a week and it always brings me joy the last nine months haven't been easy on him my disease has worsened a bit this past year i'm more tired and my arm isn't working as well it does worry me a bit but there are worse things in life [Music] but what i would say is stay clear of those pesticides [Music] you

Channel: DW Documentary

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Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2021, documentary, Parkinson’s disease, pesticides, occupational disease, viticulture, gardener, chemicals, pesticide, agriculture, farming, Parkinson's, work related illess, farm, pesticide use, disease, are pesticides linked to disease

Id: 6i2sJwxw5Uc

Length: 42min 23sec (2543 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021