- PARIS (AFP) - An organic
garden pesticide widely considered safe for human health and harmless for
the environment may cause Parkinson's disease, scientists fear.
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- Lab rats intravenously injected with rotenone, a plant-based
pesticide used to eliminate unwanted insects, kill ticks on household pets
and cull pond fish in water management programmes, developed Parkinson's-like
symptoms and brain damage, they report.
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- Parkinson's, which strikes about one percent of all people
over the age of 65, is a notorious degenerative disease characterised by
shaking, immobility and difficulty in speaking. Sufferers include Pope
John Paul II, Muhammad Ali and screen actor Michael J. Fox.
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- Some cases of Parkinson's have been pinned to genes,
but most cases remain unexplained, causing scientists to ponder whether
there could be an environmental factor.
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- The scientists, from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia,
report their work Sunday in the December issue of Nature Neuroscience,
a US specialist journal.
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- They say the degeneration occurred in dopamine-containing
neurons in the substantia nigra, part of the brain that helps to coordinate
movements.
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- The rats developed clumpy proteins, called Lewy bodies,
in this area and also suffered some of the characteristic symptoms of Parkinson's.
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- "The results indicate that chronic exposure to a
common pesticide can reproduce the anatomical, neurochemical, behavioural
and neuropathological features" of the disease, the team say.
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- University of Pennsylvania researchers Benoit Giasson
and Virginia Lee said many questions remain to be answered, but there were
already worrying implications.
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- "Rotenone is a naturally occurring substance that
is eventually degraded in the environment, and as such it is considered
to be benign compared to many other pesticides.
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- "The results... are likely to raise new questions
about its safety," they write.
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- Parkinson's disease is known to develop in mice or monkeys
treated with a drug called MPTP, which disrupts enzymes in mitochondria,
a component at the heart of a cell that provides the cell with energy.
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- Rotenone, like many other pesticides, inhibits the same
enzyme, which is called Complex 1. This is what led the Emory University
team to check out the pesticide's effect on the rats.
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- One theory, said Giasson and Lee, was that the disruption
causes the mitochondria to crank out free radicals -- agents that induce
cell death and mutation which have been already been implicated in numerous
diseases.
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- Rotenone is extracted from roots, seeds and leaves from
plants such as barbasco, cub, haiari, nekoe and timbo, which are members
of the pea family.
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- US trade names for products containing rotenone include
Chem-Fish, Cuberol, Fish Tox, Noxfire, Rotacide, Sinid and Tox-R, according
to Emtoxnet, a Web-based data bank on pesticides run by several US universities.
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- It is also marketed as Curex Flea Duster, Derrin, Cenol
Garden Dust, Chem-Mite, Cibe Extract and Green Cross Warble Powder.
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- The pesticide is classified as highly or slightly toxic
for humans, according to its formulation.
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- It can be lethal if taken in large, concentrated doses,
which is not the case for commercially-sold products. It is considered
safe for the environment as it loses all its toxicity within a few days.
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