How long before your competent? doctor tells you of this risk? Well this might explain my Dad's Parkinsons. He was a car mechanic and owned his own gas station for about 10 years in his 20's. I never got into cars so I should be good on this front.
Research suggested that trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent used in dry cleaning clothing and degreasing metal parts, was linked to Parkinson's disease
Risk of Neurologic Disorder Rises for People Who Live Near Golf Courses
Groundwater vulnerability emerges as an important risk factor for Parkinson's disease
Key Takeaways
- Living within 1 mile of a golf course was associated with increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease in a regional study.
- Parkinson's risk also was high in water service areas with golf courses in vulnerable groundwater regions.
- The researchers plan to replicate this study about golf courses and Parkinson's disease nationwide.
People who lived near a golf course had higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease, a case-control study suggested.
After adjusting for patient demographics and neighborhood characteristics, living within 1 mile of a golf course was associated with more than double the odds of developing Parkinson's disease compared with living more than 6 miles away (adjusted OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.09-4.70), found researchers led by Brittany Krzyzanowski, PhD, of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.
Living in a water service area with a golf course also showed higher odds of Parkinson's compared with other water service areas (adjusted OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.20-3.23) or having a private well (adjusted OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.05-2.13), Krzyzanowski and colleagues reported in JAMA Network Open.
Living in water service areas with a golf course in vulnerable groundwater regions -- regions with coarse textured soils, shallow bedrock, or karst geology -- also correlated with risk of developing Parkinson's (adjusted OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.09-3.03).
"Our study found that both distance from a golf course and karst topography were independently associated with risk of Parkinson's disease," Krzyzanowski told MedPage Today.
"Karst topography describes a region with limestone bedrock that slowly dissolves over time, creating underground voids that allow water from the surface to move more rapidly through it," she added. "This means that pesticides applied to grass or crops can more readily move into the groundwater supply after a rain."
The findings suggest that people living near golf courses should be aware of possible risks and take steps to minimize exposure. "Get in touch with the golf course and ask what days and times they spray," Krzyzanowski suggested. "During spray times, try to stay indoors. You can also consider using a carbon water filter to reduce the risk of contamination from drinking water."
Parkinson's disease has been tied to environmental contaminants, including industrial solvents like trichloroethylene in drinking water and pesticides like simazine, atrazine, and lindane. Pesticides known to be associated with the development of Parkinson's disease have been used to treat golf courses for years, Krzyzanowski and colleagues pointed out.
"Pesticides such as paraquat and rotenone have been shown to induce Parkinson-like neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra, primarily through mechanisms involving oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and dopaminergic neuron apoptosis," they wrote.
Despite the biological plausibility, very few studies have explored the relationship between pesticide exposure from golf courses and Parkinson's, they noted.
Krzyzanowski and colleagues studied people with incident Parkinson's disease and matched controls who were part of the Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP) from 1991 to 2015.
They identified incident Parkinson's disease in Olmsted County, Minnesota, by ICD codes. Controls, also from the 27-county REP study region in Minnesota and Wisconsin, were matched on age and sex with Parkinson's cases.
The researchers used Esriopens in a new tab or window software to identify 139 golf courses in the REP study area in 2013 and collected data about 224 water service areas from the U.S. Geological Survey. They adjusted findings for age, sex, race and ethnicity, year of index, median household income, and urban or rural location.
All Parkinson's cases had an Olmsted County address at the time of symptom onset, but address histories showed cases with previous addresses in 22 of the 27 REP counties. The median number of addresses recorded in medical records was one, and the median time lived at an address was 18.5 years.
The study sample included 419 incident Parkinson's cases (median age was 73, and 61.3% were male) and 5,113 controls (median age was 72, and 59.5% were male).
The odds of incident Parkinson's disease decreased by 9% (adjusted OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.85-0.98) for every 1-mile increase in distance from a golf course, up to 18 miles.
After adjusting for proximity to a golf course, people in vulnerable water service areas had twice the odds for Parkinson's compared with people in non-vulnerable water service areas (adjusted OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.30-3.04, P=0.001).
The analysis assumed most golf courses in the study existed for many years before 2013, the researchers acknowledged. Pesticides used on golf courses decades ago may not be the same as ones used today. Unknown confounding factors may have influenced results, and address history data were limited.
"Our study complements, and expands on, the limited research on golf courses and Parkinson's disease, but more research is needed to fully understand the risks," Krzyzanowski said. "Our next step is to replicate this study nationwide in a dataset of more than 22 million Medicare beneficiaries and approximately 16,000 golf courses."
Disclosures
Researchers received support from the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The Rochester Epidemiology Project is supported by the National Institute on Aging.
Krzyzanowski reported no conflicts of interest. Co-authors reported relationships with pharmaceutical companies and other entities.
Primary Source
JAMA Network Open
Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowKrzyzanowski B, et al "Proximity to golf courses and risk of Parkinson disease" JAMA Netw Open 2025; DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9198.
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