Professor John Robertson OBA

BBC UK has been featuring new technologies to assist people with Parkinson’s, today. Two days ago, the BMJ reported new research on the condition’s global surge in cases. The BMJ site was down as I wrote this but parkinson’s europe has this:

A new modelling study published today in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) suggests there will be 25 million people living with Parkinson’s worldwide by 2050, more than doubling the current global prevalence of Parkinson’s.

Researchers from Capital Medical University in Beijing, China, conducted this latest modelling study using data from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease Study to predict the prevalence of Parkinson’s in 195 countries and territories from 2022 to 2050.

The findings suggest the number of people living with the condition in 2050 will be 25.2 million, a 112% increase compared to 2021.¹

The above research does not seem to look at possible causes but when I saw the report, I was reminded of this the equally trustworthy Lancet in 2020:

Glyphosate Exposure May Increase Parkinson’s Disease Risk – Parkinson’s disease is undergoing the fastest rise in prevalence among neurological diseases worldwide. This growth is caused in part by exposure to environmental toxicants, with a particular concern revolving around exposure to pesticides. Many pesticides cause nigrostriatal cell death and produce parkinsonian signs in exposed animals. Moreover, farmers have an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.¹

There is an intense debate in Europe around glyphosate, with a vote in November, 2023, on renewing its marketing authorisation. Glyphosate is a controversial herbicide because of concerns around public health risks, including cancer. Many individuals are exposed to glyphosate, with the international SPRINT study finding glyphosate residues in faeces of 70% of participants (farmers, their neighbours, and urban residents).

We urgently appeal to governments and policy makers throughout the European Union to vote against extending the marketing authorisation of glyphosate by another 10 years. Our opinion is based on two considerations, illustrated here using Parkinson’s disease as an example, although similar concerns apply to other neurodegenerative diseases (eg, Alzheimer’s, motor neuron disease) and intellectual disabilities in children.²

In the USA, there have already been thousands of legal cases brought against Monsanto, the maker of the glyphosate-containing Roundup ‘weed killer’, still on sale in the UK. See:

As of October 2024, Monsanto has reached settlement agreements in nearly 100,000 Roundup lawsuits. Monsanto paid approximately $11 billion. Bayer has accomplished this by negotiating block settlement arrangements with plaintiffs’ lawyers who have significant cases in the litigation… and by settling with plaintiffs before trial.³

Bayer, during World War II, benefited from:

Forced labour and medical experimentation in concentration camps, production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals supplies of Nazi Germany.⁵

Research by the Ferret found that glyphosate-based pesticides are still widely used in Scotland.⁴

Sources:

1. https://parkinsonseurope.org/2025/03/06/parkinsons-cases-will-double-to-25-million-by-2050-bmj-study-says/
2. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(23)00255-3/fulltext
3. https://www.lawsuit-information-center.com/roundup-lawsuit.html
4. https://theferret.scot/weed-killer-linked-cancer-used-nearly-every-council/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust