Does Recall Bias Explain Past Associations Between Pesticides and Parkinson's
How do people's memories of pesticide exposures correlate with industrial hygiene estimates of those exposures? Not so well. In fact it's pretty clear that a lot of people with Parkinson's assume that chemicals caused their illness and so are primed to remember past high exposures that had not in fact occurred. For a well done paper showing no association between pesticides and Parkinson's plus a great discussion of recall bias see: "Pesticide Exposure and Risk of Parkinson's Disease - A Population-Based Case-Control Study Evaluating the Potential for Recall Bias".
Those looking for the real cause of the increase in risk of Parkinson's among those involved in farming should pay attention to the endotoxin discussion. I'll check the studies that show endotoxin may protect against lung cancer in cotton textile workers to see if there's any hint of a Parkinson's excess and report back.
