Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/Czo5NNWLeY_/ Those living in severely polluted areas have as much as a 60% higher risk of developing Parkinson’s Disease.  This the conclusion of a population-based, geographic study of nearly 22 million Medicare beneficiaries by researchers at Arizona’s Barrows Neurological Institute and St. Louis’ Washington University School of Medicine. Their analysis revealed a steadily increasing, linear risk of Parkinson’s with increasing exposures to polluted air from the lowest or about 2 um.m2 PM2.5 to 13 ug/M2.  At that point, the Parkinson’s risk is about 56% higher with the risk rising to 60% as the pollution level risk nearly doubles to 24 ug/M2. This geographic map shows that the hot spots for both pollution and Parkinson’s occur in the industrialized zones of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, reaching southward into Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.  The cold spots for pollution and Parkinson’s occur in the far west, in the mid and northern we