Scientists Thought #Parkinsons Was in Our Genes. It Might Be in the #Water
New ideas about #ChronicIllness could revolutionize treatment, if we take the research seriously.
By David Ferry, December 10, 2025
Excerpt: "Sometime before 1953, a massive plume of #trichlorethylene, or #TCE, had entered the groundwater beneath #CampLejeune. TCE is a highly effective solvent—one of those midcentury wonder chemicals—that vaporizes quickly and dissolves whatever grease it touches. The spill’s source is debated, but grunts on base used TCE to maintain machinery, and the dry cleaner sprayed it on dress blues. It was ubiquitous at Lejeune and all over America.
"And TCE appeared benign, too—you could rub it on your hands or huff its fumes and feel no immediate effects. It plays a longer game. For approximately 35 years, Marines and sailors who lived at Lejeune unknowingly breathed in vaporized TCE whenever they turned on their tap. The Navy, which oversees the Marine Corps, first denied the toxic plume’s existence, then refused to admit it could affect Marines’ health. But as Lejeune’s vets aged, cancers and unexplained illness began stalking them at staggering rates. Marines stationed on base had a 35 percent higher risk of developing kidney cancer, a 47 percent higher risk of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a 68 percent higher risk of multiple myeloma. At the local cemetery, the section reserved for infants had to be expanded.
"Meanwhile, Langston had spent the remainder of the 1980s setting up the California Parkinson’s Foundation (later renamed the Parkinson’s Institute), a lab and treatment facility equipped with everything needed to finally reveal the cause of the disease. 'We thought we were going to solve it,' Langston told me. Researchers affiliated with the institute created the first animal model for Parkinson’s, identified a pesticide called #Paraquat as a near chemical match to #MPTP, and proved that farm workers who sprayed Paraquat developed Parkinson’s at exceedingly high rates.
"Then they showed that identical twins developed Parkinson’s at the same rate as fraternal twins—something that wouldn’t make sense if the disease were purely genetic, since identical twins share DNA and fraternal twins do not. They even noted TCE as a potential cause of the disease, Langston says. Each revelation, the team thought, represented another nail in the coffin of the genetic theory of Parkinson’s."
Read more:
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/w8kFq
#TCE #Solvents #DryCleaningFluid #Toxins #ToxicContamination #ParkinsonsDisease #WaterIsLife #WaterContamination
WIRED
Scientists Thought Parkinson’s Was in Our Genes. It Might Be in the Water
New ideas about chronic illness could revolutionize treatment, if we take the research seriously.
