Summary: In the United States alone, about 500,000 people have Parkinson's disease, and more than 50,000 new cases are diagnosed every year. Research over the years has shown that genetics and environmental factors are what cause Parkinson's, and several studies have reported that exposure to solvents may increase the risk of a person developing this disease. Recently, the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), a common industrial solvent used in paints, adhesives, carpet cleaners, and dry-cleaning products, has been shown to greatly increase the risk of Parkinson's. Critique: It's pretty obvious that solvents can be dangerous. Some, like water, aren't dangerous; however I think that something used to thin paint would automatically be treated as hazardous. It's great that they discovered this connection, and perhaps new, less hazardous products, can be developed to reduce (or possibly eliminate) usage of TCE. Solvents are in soil, groundwater, and air here, it's possible that coming into contact with TCE is just unavoidable, but staying away from working with it is good.
Impact: There's no immediate impact from this study. Hopefully people will work to stay away from TCE, but they still may end up with Parkinson's.
Life with Parkinson's
Reference: http://gma.yahoo.com/exposure-toxic-solvents-linked-parkinsons-disease-140407014.html
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