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Cited by 54Pesticide Exposure and ToxicityAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ResearchPesticide and Herbicide Environmental Studies

Pesticides applied to crops and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis risk in the U.S

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Andrew, Angeline, Zhou, Jie, Gui, Jiang, Harrison, Antoinette, Shi, Xun, Li, Meifang, Guetti, Bart, Nathan, Ramaa +4 more·2021·NeuroToxicology
DOI 10.1016/j.neuro.2021.09.004PMC PMC10756230
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Abstract

Background Environmental exposures are implicated in the etiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Application of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides with neurotoxic properties to crops is permitted in the U.S., however reporting of the quantities is government mandated. Objective To identify pesticides that may be associated with ALS etiology for future study. Methods We geospatially estimated exposure to crop-applied pesticides as risk factors for ALS in a large de-identified medical claims database, the SYMPHONY Integrated Dataverse®. We extracted residence at diagnosis of ∼26,000 nationally distributed ALS patients, and matched non-ALS controls. We mapped county-level U.S. Geological Survey data on applications of 423 pesticides to estimate local residential exposure. We randomly broke the SYMPHONY dataset into two groups to form independent discovery and validation cohorts, then confirmed top hits using residential history information from a study of NH, VT, and OH. Results Pesticides with the largest positive statistically significant associations in both the discovery and the validation studies and evidence of neurotoxicity in the literature were the herbicides 2,4-D (OR 1.25 95 % CI 1.17-1.34) and glyphosate (OR 1.29 95 %CI 1.19-1.39), and the insecticides carbaryl (OR 1.32 95 %CI 1.23-1.42) and chlorpyrifos (OR 1.25 95 %CI 1.17-1.33). Significance Our geospatial analysis results support potential neurotoxic pesticide exposures as risk factors for sporadic ALS. Focused studies to assess these identified potential relationships are warranted.

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  • Environmental exposures including herbicides and heavy metals have been associated with increased risk of developing ALS.

    “Growing epidemiological evidence suggests that exposure to certain environmental contaminants, including herbicides and heavy metals, has been associated with a higher incidence of ALS.2”

    From Head trauma and environment progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: long-term data from the National ALS Registry (2026) · cites this paper as [2]

    The Introduction and Discussion report epidemiological associations between pesticide exposure, including herbicides, and ALS risk. Our copy does not report an association between heavy-metal exposure and ALS; searches for heavy metals and specific metals did not find one. No page numbers were provided for these passages. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Cited by

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Authors
Andrew, A., Zhou, J., Gui, J., Harrison, A., Shi, X., Li, M., Guetti, B., Nathan, R., Tischbein, M., Pioro, E. P., Stommel, E., & Bradley, W.
Affiliations
  • Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center (US)
  • Dartmouth College (US)
  • Cleveland Clinic (US)
  • University of Miami (US)
Corresponding author
Andrew, Angeline
ORCID
Venue
NeuroToxicology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-12
Volume
87
Pages
128-135
ISSN
0161-813X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.neuro.2021.09.004
PMC
PMC10756230
OpenAlex
W3200852473
Cited by
54
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 8
FWCI
5.71
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • NeuroToxicology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (R01TS000288)
  • National Cancer Institute (P30CA023108)
  • Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Pesticide Exposure and Toxicity
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Pesticide and Herbicide Environmental Studies
Keywords
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, pesticide exposure, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, 2,4-D, glyphosate, carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, neurotoxicity, residential exposure, ALS risk factors, health insurance claims data
MeSH terms
Crop Production, Glyphosate, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Chlorpyrifos, Environmental Exposure, Female, Glycine, Herbicides, Humans, Insecticides, Male, Middle Aged, Pesticides, Risk Factors, Carbaryl, United States, 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid

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