The invisible chemical in the air that can raise the risk of Parkinson

• Long -term exposure to the common industrial chemical may be associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease.
• Trichlorethylene (TCE) is a chemical used to remove fat and dry cleaning. Although it has been banned for some uses, it is still being used today as an industrial solvent, survival in the air, soil and water throughout the United States
• The researchers estimated the long -term TCE exposure to more than 1.1 million adults by using ZIP+4 and air pollution data.
• The elderly who lived in areas with the highest levels of TCE in the external air had a 10 % higher risk of Parkinson than those in areas with the lowest levels.
• The study does not prove that TCE causes Parkinson, but adds to increasing evidence that environmental pollutants may contribute to risk.

Long -term exposure to the soluble solvents can be linked to an outdoor chloro Ethylene (TCE) to increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease, according to a major study at the level of the country published on October 1, 2025, their number neurologyThe Medical Journal of the American Academy of Neuroscience.

Trichlorethylene is a chemical used to remove fat, dry cleaning and other industrial applications. Although TCE has been banned for certain uses, it is still being used today as an industrial solvent and is an ongoing environmental pollution in the air, water and soil throughout the United States. The study does not prove that the TCe exposure causes Parkinson’s disease, but it only appears in connection.

“In this study at the level of adults at the national level, the long -term exposure to the ethylene bicchenin in the open air has been associated with a small but measurable increase in the danger of Parkinson’s,” said the author of the study, Bretani Carrzianovsky, PhD at the Phoenix Neurological Institute. “These results add to an increasing range of evidence that environmental exposure may contribute to Parkinson’s disease.”

The researchers used medical care data to identify people over the age of 67 who were newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s between 2016 and 2018. Each person was compared to five people who did not suffer from the disease. After removing people without home information Zip+4, the study included 221,789 people with Parkinson’s and more than 1.1 million people without illness.

They set the outdoor TCe concentrations using the US Environmental Protection Agency data and the residential neighborhood of the participants based on the Zip +4. The air levels of TCE were estimated by the American tract, which is a small area inside the province. Each participant was based on two years before the diagnosis.

The researchers divided the participants into 10 groups based on their estimated exposure to TCE. Those in the lowest exposure group witnessed levels between 0.005 and 0.01 micrograms per cubic meter (microgram/cubic meter), while those in the highest group were exposure ranging from 0.14 to 8.66 micrograms/cubic meter.

After adjusting other factors that can affect the risk of cutting Parkinson’s, including age, the date of smoking and exposure to accurate physical air pollution, the researchers found that people exposed to the highest outdoor TCE levels have a 10 % increased risk of Parkinson’s disease compared to people exposed to the lowest levels.

The researchers also identified many geographical “hot points” where the outdoor TCE levels were higher, especially in the rust belt area in the United States and smaller pockets throughout the country. Then they analyzed Parkinson’s risks in 10 miles surrounding the three TCE installation facilities in the United States since 2002. For two areas, the risks were higher than the facilities, and in one of those sites, there was a clear increasing risk that increases the risk of people living to the elbow.

“Although the increasing risks were modest, the huge number of people exposed to TCE in the environment means that the effect of possible public health may be significant,” said Kurzanovsky. “This emphasizes the need for stronger regulations and more monitoring of industrial pollutants.”

One of the study restrictions is that it focuses only on individuals with medical care, so the results may not apply to young people or those who suffer from Parkinson’s disease early. In addition, TCE exposure was based on external air levels in 2002 and individual exposure to life or interior may not reflect.

The study was supported by the US Department of Defense, the Kimber Foundation, the Marali, the Barrow Neurology Foundation and the Moreno Family Foundation.