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Living within 1 mile of a golf course associated with 126% increased odds of developing Parkinsons (jamanetwork.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It's the pesticides in the grass...

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (15 children)

IDK enough about statistics to really interpret these results but ... I have some concerns.

If these results are accurate and herbicides are responsible I would've thought the stuff would be outlawed. Herbicides are used in a vast range of applications. The fallout would be like asbestos or something.

That said, 126% increased odds sounds like a lot but if the odds are 1 in 1000 and the study size contains only 9000 individuals then the usual odds would be 9 cases but 10 cases would represent a 900% increase.

I also don't understand the drinking water angle. Do people really have private wells from which they draw drinking water ? Enough people to be statistically significant?

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 day ago (7 children)

That said, 126% increased odds sounds like a lot but if the odds are 1 in 1000 and the study size contains only 9000 individuals then the usual odds would be 9 cases but 10 cases would represent a 900% increase.

I think you should check your calculation again. A 900% increase from 9 expected cases would be 90 cases.

Also the abstract already explains your questions:

Findings This case-control study found the greatest risk of PD within 1 to 3 miles of a golf course, and that this risk generally decreased with distance. Effect sizes were largest in water service areas with a golf course in vulnerable groundwater regions.

Exposures Distance to golf courses, living in water service areas with a golf course, living in water service areas in vulnerable groundwater regions, living in water service areas with shallow municipal wells, and living in water service areas with a municipal well on a golf course.

So if the local waterplant is extracting ground water where pesticides leach in, that increases the effects, which is to be expected.

Finally there is plenty of harmful chemicals that are known to be harmful but thanks to lobbying remain legal decades after the fact is established. See PFAS and Glyphosate for current examples.

[–] Mouselemming 6 points 1 day ago

I'm kind of glad about that water thing because there's a golf course about a mile downhill and I don't know where they get their water but ours is piped in from an uphill reservoir quite far in the other direction. Which might have all kinds of other unknowns in it, of course, but I'm so old I'm probably mostly microplastics and carcinogens by now.

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