The following story, published in the Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) this week, reveals the origin of the recent study confirming links between TCE and Parkinsons:

Chemical linked to Parkinson's disease
By Sarah Vos
SVOS@HERALD-LEADER.COM

In the late 1970s, Eddie Abney cleaned grease from metal gauges at a Berea factory using a chemical solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE. The chemical, which is still used today as an industrial degreaser, soaked through his cotton gloves and into his skin. It splattered on his clothes. He breathed in its vapors.

At night, when he came home, he would tell his wife that the smell was killing him.

It may have been.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky have linked industrial use of TCE to Parkinson's disease, which Abney has. It was Abney, 51, who pointed researchers to a possible connection, leading to a study that was published last month in the online version of Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association.

The study shows a clear link between an environmental contaminant and Parkinson's, said Don Gash, the lead researcher.

TCE has been suspected before as a cause of Parkinson's, but the UK study shows a "clear-cut link" from exposure to the chemical to the disease's development, Gash said. "We've connected the dots."

The study found that three people who directly handled TCE at the factory where Abney worked developed Parkinson's disease. An additional 14, who breathed in its vapors, had early symptoms of Parkinson's, but not the disease itself. And 13 more, who were also exposed to vapors, didn't show signs of parkinsonism but had slower fine motor skills than others their age.

[...]

When Abney was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2001, he and his wife, Susan, wondered whether TCE could have been the cause. Sometimes Parkinson's has a genetic tie, but Eddie Abney didn't have family history of Parkinson's. Environmental factors had been linked to the disease: exposure to certain pesticides or recreational use of MTPT, known commonly as synthetic heroin.

But Abney wondered whether, in his case, it was TCE. He remembered the strong smell of the chemical he had worked with for more than two decades with little protection.

"I had gloves on, but they were just white cotton gloves," Abney said. "If they got wet, they got saturated."

A year after his diagnosis, Abney participated in a clinical drug trial for Parkinson's disease at UK. When he told a researcher his medical history, he mentioned the exposure to TCE, and the fact that others from the factory had Parkinson's. The researcher, Kathyrn Rutland, thought it sounded like a cluster of cases.

"We felt like there was enough there to really get started," said Gash, the lead researcher.

Read the full story here. (Thanks to KM for the tip!)

Following on the heels of a study that recently confirmed consistent patterns of brain damage among solvent-exposed railroad workers, a jury in Kentucky has awarded a significant sum of money to a man whose brain damage was similarly attributed to solvent exposure:

A Jefferson Circuit Court jury has awarded a former railroad employee $1.8 million after he claimed exposure to cleaning solvent at work in Louisville and Corbin caused permanent brain damage.

Terry L. Williams, 59, of Corbin, had targeted his former employer, CSX Transportation, in the lawsuit. He declined to be interviewed.

CSX spokesman Gary Sease declined to comment. Sease has previously said that the company does not believe solvents sickened workers at CSX or companies that CSX acquired, such as the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.

But the 9-3 verdict in the two-week trial is the latest in a string of litigation in several states involving hundreds of railroad workers.

The Louisville jury awarded Williams $500,000 for medical expenses, $500,000 for loss of income, $500,000 for past mental and physical pain and suffering and $500,000 for future mental and physical pain and suffering, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Because the jury attributed 10 percent of the negligence to Williams, CSX will be obligated to pay 90 percent of the award, or $1.8 million.

Kenneth Sales, senior partner in [The Sales and Slattery Group,] the law firm that handled Williams' case, said Williams worked for the railroad 34 years, leaving in 2000 after having been diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy. Williams' career as a machinist working on locomotives started at the L&N's old South Louisville shops and ended at a maintenance facility in Corbin.

Read the rest of the story in The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

Note: We are in the process of trying to chase down more info on this case. Specifically, what were the actual solvents to which Mr. Williams was exposed and to which his brain damage was attributed? Published reports do not seem to mention this detail. We have one lead that suggests 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA) may have been the main contaminant of concern (Thanks K.P.), but we are trying to confirm it. As such, we're attempting to reach the law firm that represented Mr. Williams as well as the author of the story above. If or as we learn any more, we'll post an update here.

We caught this news in the Louisville Carrier-Journal (KY):

Ronald Lamb was outraged and demanded government compensation after discovering in 1994 that his water well had been tainted by pollution from the nearby Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Now, Lamb said he's intrigued by a measure before Congress calling for the government to study buying the properties of families whose homes and farms sit on top of a plume of groundwater contaminated by degreasing solvents and radioactive chemicals.

[...]

The measure passed the Senate 92-3 on July 1 and now goes to a conference with the House, which did not include a similar provision.

[...]

"How do you value two decades or more of living in a toxic environment, having family members getting ill, and seeing the value and heritage of your property go downhill?" [a Paducah area resident] asked. "Yet the government won't compensate for this, and I foresee a lot of bitterness if the government tries to take this property on the cheap."

This is the first we've heard of such a measure being considered by Congress. We'll do a bit of research on it and return with any additional details we can find (and perhaps some discussion of the implications). Meantime, there's more to the story, including discussion of the Paducah area contamination situation, here.