Golf course pesticides may increase risk of Parkinson’s: Study
Living within 3 miles of course makes developing disease more likely
Living within three miles of a golf course may increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, possibly due to pesticide exposure, a study reported.
The risk decreased with distance, the researchers found. Areas with water systems vulnerable to pesticide pollution from golf courses had a higher prevalence of Parkinson’s, according to the study.
“These findings suggest that pesticides applied to golf courses may play a role in the incidence [of Parkinson’s disease] for nearby residents,” they wrote.
The study, “Proximity to Golf Courses and Risk of Parkinson Disease,” was published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological disorder which causes both motor and nonmotor symptoms. It may be related to a variety of underlying Parkinson’s disease causes, including genetic predisposition and exposure to certain environmental conditions.
Pesticides linked to Parkinson’s risk
“Among the environmental risk factors, pesticide exposure has been linked to increased risk of [Parkinson’s disease],” the team wrote. Many golf courses, especially those in the U.S., use pesticides to maintain aesthetic standards. This may be particularly pertinent in areas where water comes from sources below the surface vulnerable to pesticide contamination.
While a report suggested a possible link between living near golf courses and developing Parkinson’s, research into the connection is lacking, according to the researchers.
They carried out a population-based study using medical records from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, which includes indexed health records for residents of 27 counties in Wisconsin and Minnesota dating back to 1966, to examine whether living near any of 139 golf courses is linked to developing Parkinson’s. Using data collected from 1991 to 2015, the study covered a 16,119-square-mile area in southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
The team identified 419 people who began exhibiting symptoms of Parkinson’s and received Parkinson’s diagnoses while living in Olmsted County, Minnesota. Participants’ median age when their symptoms started was 73.
A group of 5,113 people without Parkinson’s from across the study region served as controls. Based on age at symptom onset, researchers matched each person with Parkinson’s to controls of the same sex who had health records at about the same age.
The team extracted each person’s address beginning two or three years before symptom onset — or an age-matched date in controls — to account for possible delays between exposure and disease development. They calculated information about the water service areas and distance from golf courses for each address.
“We observed that risk of developing [Parkinson’s disease] was greatest for those living within 1 to 3 miles of a golf course and that the risk of [Parkinson’s disease] generally decreased with increasing distance from a golf course,” the researchers wrote. Living within one mile of a course increased Parkinson’s risk by 126% compared with living more than six miles away.
Whether there was a golf course that used the same water supply as the person’s residence also influenced Parkinson’s risk. The odds of developing Parkinson’s were nearly double in water service areas with a golf course compared with those without.
For people who were in a water service area with a golf course in vulnerable groundwater regions, this risk increased by 82%.
Although the Rochester Epidemiology Project can provide a rich dataset for looking at Parkinson’s risk, it comes with some drawbacks, the researchers noted. The data cover a limited geographic region, and the team only considered people diagnosed with Parkinson’s in one county, they said.
Pesticide use and golf course location could also have varied over time, the researchers said.
The team’s findings suggest that golf courses and their associated pesticides may pose a risk, particularly through the water supply. People living close to golf courses, particularly in cities, may also be exposed to pesticides in the air, they said.
“Public health policies to reduce the risk of groundwater contamination and airborne exposure from pesticides on golf courses may help reduce” the risk of Parkinson’s in neighboring communities, the researchers said.
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