P H Y S I C I A N S F O R S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y
Emerging Links between
Chronic Disease and
Environmental
Exposure
P H Y S I C I A N S F O R S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y
Emerging Links between
Chronic Disease and
Environmental
Exposure
Parkinson’s
Disease
PARKINSON’S DISEASE
3
Introduction
The next few pages review the diseases that
were considered when conceptualizing this
project. The comprehensive report that follows
delves much more deeply into the three specific
chronic conditions and their connections to the
environment.
In evaluating the candidate diseases, PSR used
three sets of criteria:
1. Public health importance: disease incidence
and prevalence, years of productive life lost,
and associated costs;
2. Scientific evidence supporting a link between
the disease and environmental exposures;
3. Public concern and interest: the likelihood
that the disease is of significant concern to the
public and to health care providers treating
the public.
In developing the initial process to examine
emerging environmental links to chronic conditions,
PSR identified several possible candidate conditions
for evaluation: attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD); amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS); Alzheimer’s disease; autism, i.e., the
spectrum of pervasive developmental disorders;
diabetes; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL); and
Parkinson’s disease (PD). Though PSR could
only select three chronic illnesses on which to
focus, PSR wanted to consider many different
illnesses before making a selection. These three
reports review the existing research and provide a
framework and a context for the future work. PSR
AS OUR KNOWLEDGE about the etiology of disease progresses, the evidence for environmental
contributions to disease grows. There is a need to evaluate the findings from this research to
assess possible emerging trends in chronic diseases. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)
has partnered with environmental health researchers to assess the