Per Borghammer

What does the science tell us about how these exposures affect the developing babies? And as neurologists, are there other diseases that came up as you researched Parkinson's that can also begin in utero?

Yeah, so there's great research done by my colleague, Dr. Virginia Rao, right here at Columbia University in New York City.

And she was concerned about the effects of pesticides on children.

And she looked at a pesticide that was previously been used on golf courses, utility poles.

So many women had miscarriages on this military base that there was a cemetery off the base that was called Baby Heaven.

Some of the babies were born.

without brains and then my colleague dr caroline tanner and dr sam goldman both at university of california san francisco not too far from where you're sitting right now study the marines who are exposed to it and by definition marines are healthy they're young right this is where they were on average age 20 and they were exposed for only a short period of time just over two years on average yet 34 years later they had a 70 percent increased risk of developing parkinson's disease So they were marine, some when they were teenagers who were exposed to this chemical trichloroethylene, which in previous studies has been associated with a 500% increased risk of Parkinson's, and they were having a 70% increased risk three and a half decades later.

Wow.