Manganese exposure could lead to Parkinson’s disease
Funding has been made available which will enable new research to take place into a possible link between manganese exposure and the development of Parkinson’s Disease.
Barrow Neurological Institute of Arizona will lead the research which will be undertaken in South Africa, where more than a third of the world’s manganese is produced.
Manganese has many industrial uses: it is a component for steel, it’s used in water treatment, fertilisers and as a colourant. It’s also a component of lithium-ion batteries.
The new research will build on previous studies in Meyerton, South Africa which at the time was home to the world’s largest manganese smelter.
Having lived in the smelter’s shadow for more than 50 years, residents in the town finally raised their concerns about its impact on their health, which led to a 2013 pilot study by Brad Racette, MD, Chair of Neurology at Barrow Neurological Institute. This prompted further research, funded by the National Institutes of Health which took place five years ago.
More than 800 Meyerton residents were recruited to the study, about 700 of whom had exposure to emissions from the Meyerton smelter, along with a control group from a town 50 miles away.
Following clinical examinations which measured motor and cognitive functions as well as mood, it was seen that the Meyerton residents performed poorly in all three compared to the non-exposed population.
The smelter shut down in 2020, but Dr. Racette’s team found that air concentrations of manganese remained very high in the community.
The new research, again led by Dr. Racette and funded by the National Institutes of Health, will investigate whether manganese causes inflamation in the brain, which can induce Parkinson’s.
They hypothesise that exposure to environmental manganese, two orders of magnitude below the typical occupational exposure, is associated with the progression of Parkinson’s symptoms.
The team will revisit the same cohort in South Africa to determine whether the participants’ motor and cognitive symptoms have worsened. They will also investigate a possible loss of smell which can be an early indicator of Parkinson’s disease, and other symptoms of the disease, such as bladder and bowel dysfunction.
Dr Racette said: ‘We hope this work will ultimately inform environmental regulations for manganese worldwide. Our study also addresses an environmental justice concern raised by individuals who often are not represented in health research.
‘Very few people in the Meyerton settlements we studied actually worked at the smelter. The people who have been poisoned with decades of pollution probably have received very little economic benefit from this facility. It’s a serious health equity and environmental justice issue.
Dr. Racette is collaborating with epidemiologist Gill Nelson, PhD, of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa; epidemiologist Susan Nielson, PhD, environmental engineer Jay Turner, DSc, of Washington University in St. Louis; and biostatistician Lianne Sheppard of the University of Washington in Seattle.
In related news:
