New research shows that farmers who used agricultural insecticides in the last decade experienced increased neurological symptoms, even when they were no longer using the products. According to another study, the rate of new illnesses associated with pesticide exposure at schools increased significantly in children from 1998 to 2002.

Data from almost 19,000 North Carolina and Iowa farmers linked use of insecticides to reports of reoccurring headaches, fatigue, insomnia, dizziness, nausea, hand tremors, numbness and other neurological symptoms. Some of the insecticides named in the study are still on the market.
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Preliminary results from a study of thousands of farmers in Iowa and North Carolina suggest that exposure to several crop pesticides may be linked to the development of Parkinson’s disease.

Doctors have observed that the neurodegenerative disease is more common in people who live in farming communities, leading them to speculate that exposure to pesticides increases a person?s risk of developing the disease.

“The idea of some link to environmental toxins is becoming pretty well-accepted, but the exact ones and how much you have to be exposed to be at risk of Parkinson’s disease isn’t clear,” says Dr. Robin Brey, of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio.
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