Exposure to Airborne Manganese, Beryllium, and Nickel May Increase the Risk of Parkinson Disease

Environmental exposure to airborne manganese, beryllium, and nickel may increase the risk of Parkinson disease (PD), according to study results presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

“In the Multiple Air Pollutants in PD (MAP-PD) study, a population-based case-control study using Medicare data, we examined PD risk in relation to 11 airborne metals at the residential 9-digit zip code two years before diagnosis/selection in 2009 (51,991 incident cases and 13,177,274 controls with complete metals data),” explained Jordan Ann Killion, PhD, Barrow Neurological Institute, and coauthors.

The researchers analyzed EPA-modeled air concentration estimates for metals and their association with PD using logistic regression. Adjustments were made for demographic factors, smoking, healthcare utilization, and other environmental factors like diesel and fine particulate matter, as well as trichloroethylene.

In the model adjusted for demographics, most metals exhibited positive associations with PD, but only manganese consistently remained significant across all sensitivity analyses. After accounting for particulate matter, each standard deviation increases in manganese exposure corresponded to a 1.007 (95% CI, 1.001-1.012) higher relative risk (RR) of PD. Beryllium with an RR of 1.008 (95% CI: 0.999-1.017) and nickel with an RR of 1.006 (95% CI, 0.997-1.014) showed potential associations of similar magnitude with PD. Both manganese and nickel displayed linear associations, with significantly elevated RR for PD at higher manganese exposure levels. Manganese exhibited significance across various sources, including major point sources with an RR of 1.006 (95% CI, 1.001-1.012), area non-point sources with an RR of 1.009 (95% CI, 1.001-1.016), and on-road mobile sources with an RR of 1.011 (95% CI, 1.0001-1.022) for each standard deviation increase in exposure.

“Residential exposure to airborne manganese, and possibly beryllium and nickel, might increase risk of PD,” concluded the study authors.

Reference

Killion JA, Racette BA, and Krzyzanowski B. Airborne metals and risk of Parkinson Disease. Presented at: 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Abstract 15-001