Everyone has a different approach when it comes to learning. There are some people who learn best when they can see and touch things, while others may understand information better by hearing it or reading it. Discovering the way that works best for you will make your learning process much easier and help you retain the knowledge longer. The key is to experiment with various methods until you find what suits your needs!
An often-used chemical may be causing Parkinson’s disease, a condition that can cause movement problems and is becoming more common. This chemical called trichloroethylene (TCE) has been used by people for over a hundred years to make coffee less strong, clean grease off of metal objects, and remove stains from clothes. It also contaminates the Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune and around 15 other places in Silicon Valley, plus up to one third of groundwater in America! TCE causes cancer, is linked with miscarriages, heart diseases among newborns, and increases your risk of getting Parkinson’s disease by 500%.
The National Cancer Institute has stated that certain home products such as cleaning wipes, aerosol sprays, tool cleaners, paint removers, adhesive sprays, carpet cleaners and spot removers contain an ingredient called TCE.
Today, a research paper was published that suggests that TCE (a chemical) may be one of the causes of Parkinson’s Disease. This team of researchers wrote about how common this chemical is and why it may cause the disease. They also shared stories of 7 people who have been affected by this; for example, a famous NBA basketball player, a Navy captain, and a U.S. Senator, who all got Parkinson’s probably due to coming into contact with this chemical.
A Toxic Truth
The passage is about the importance of understanding and respecting diverse cultures, no matter how different they might be from our own. We should never judge a culture by its differences, but instead strive to learn more about it. Doing so will help us grow as individuals and lead us on paths of acceptance and tolerance of all cultures around the world.
In the 1970s, over 600 million pounds of TCE (a type of solvent) was made in America. That works out to be two pounds per person! Around 10 million Americans used this chemical or something similar for their jobs. Since then, the popularity of TCE has decreased. However, it is still being used in the US for cleaning engines and taking off paint. It is also sometimes used by doctors to help numb people’s feeling during medical procedures.
TCE is a type of chemical that has contaminated many places across the United States. It is so dangerous that 50% of the worst sites listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have TCE in them. California’s Silicon Valley, where this material was used to clean electronics and computer chips, also consists of 15 such sites. The military base Camp Lejeune found in North Carolina also contains TCE and another chemical called perchloroethylene (PCE). From 1950-1980 nearly 1 million Marines, family members and civilians living or working in this base were exposed to drinking water levels containing 280 times more than what’s considered safe.
Uncovering the Link between TCE and Parkinson’s Disease
More than 50 years ago, experts first noticed a possible connection between TCE (a type of chemical) and Parkinson’s Disease. Since then, studies with mice and rats have shown that TCE can get into the brain and body easily, and at high concentrations it can damage special parts of cells called mitochondria – that produce energy for us. Results from the animal experiments have indicated that TCE destroys nerve cells in the brain which make dopamine – an important chemical involved in Parkinson’s Disease in people.
People who have been in contact with TCE are more likely to get Parkinson’s disease. The authors also point out that many more people come into contact with it without knowing, through air outdoors, polluted water, and air inside buildings.
Certain chemicals can get into the soil and groundwater, forming huge underground rivers (also called “plumes”) that spread out over a long area. For example, there is a plume near Long Island, New York which is four miles long and two miles wide which has made drinking water unsafe for thousands of people. And there are other such plumes in many places around the world – from China to California.
TCE can easily get into people’s homes, schools and workplaces without them even knowing. It usually happens from nearby former dry cleaner, military, and industrial sites. This is called vapor intrusion, which was first recognized in the 1980s when a kind of gas called radon went inside homes and hurt people’s lungs. Nowadays, many homes are tested for radon but not for TCE, which causes cancer.
The Startling Stories of People Who Possibly Developed Parkinson’s from Chemical TCE Exposure
This article tells the stories of seven people who might have gotten Parkinson’s from a chemical called TCE. Even though it can’t be proven that this chemical caused their disease, it is possible. Sometimes many years may have passed since being exposed to the chemical and when someone gets Parkinson’s symptoms.
Brian Grant was a professional NBA basketball player who played for 12 years. Unfortunately, when he was 36, he got diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He probably got exposed to TCE (a kind of chemical) when he was 3 years old because his dad – who was in the Marines at that time – was stationed at Camp Lejeune. To help other people with this same illness, Brian even started a foundation to provide support and motivation.
Amy Lindberg was exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune when she was a young Navy Captain. Later on, 30 years after being exposed, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. The article also tells us about others who were close to or had contact with these potentially toxic chemicals like the late Senator Johnny Isakson. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015 and 50 years earlier served in the Georgia Air National Guard that used TCE (a type of chemical) to clean airplanes.
Uncovering the Hidden Danger of TCE
The writers said that for many years, TCE (chemical) has caused a lot of damage. It made people sick, polluted the air outdoors and indoors, and polluted our drinking water too. What’s worse is this chemical is still being used even now.
The authors suggest ways to deal with the danger TCE brings to people’s health. They mentioned that contaminated places can be cleaned by using special systems like those designated for radon. However, there are a lot of polluted areas in the United States, and cleaning them quickly is essential.
Experts are saying more studies should be done to figure out how TCE (a chemical) could be causing diseases like Parkinson’s. They need to pay closer attention to the amount of TCE in places like water, soil and the air inside and outside buildings near polluted sites. We also have to make sure this information is given to people living or working near those areas.
The authors want to stop people from using two types of chemicals called PCE (in dry cleaning) and TCE (in vapor degreasing). Two states, Minnesota and New York, already banned TCE but the national government didn’t even though the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA found dangerous health risks with these chemicals in 2022.
A special journal article has been published to see if something called trichloroethylene could be a hidden cause of Parkinson’s Disease. The scientific title of this article is “Trichloroethylene: An Invisible Cause of Parkinson’s Disease?”, which was published on March 14, 2023.
This paper was written by several people, including Maryam Zafar (now studying at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), Samantha Lettenberger and Dan Kinel from URMC, Bastiaan Bloem and Myrthe Frissen from Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, Caroline Tanner and Samuel Goldman from the University of California-San Francisco, as well as Briana De Miranda from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
