ABSTRACT
Environmental exposures long have been suspected to play a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD), and epidemiological data have suggested associations between toxin exposure and PD. Additionally, basic laboratory research has provided signicant proof-of-principle data, demonstrating that several environmental toxins can replicate the key pathological features of PD in animals. However, assigning causality or risk based upon these data has proven to be enormously difcult. Appreciation for the role of genetics also continues to increase, with ∼10% of cases directly attributed to inherited factors (familial PD). Genetic factors that inŸuence the remaining “sporadic” cases also continue to be identied. Most cases may arise from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. In this chapter, we review the most recent literature on the role of environmental toxin exposures in PD. Examination of the role of specic exposures in the development of PD involves considering available epidemiology and laboratory experiments.
