Central Valley Pesticides and Parkinson's Study From UCLA Featured in German Television Documentary; Epidemiologist Beate Ritz's Work Shows Link to Increased Risks

I have been following Beate Ritz's work for about ten years now - ever since the German born, UCLA epidemiologist released studies about Parkinson's in the Central Valley associated with pesticide use.

Her 2019 research showed links between the paraquat and insecticides used heavily in the Central Valley  - doubled the chances for farmworkers and residents to get Parkinson's, a disease that affects the nervous system. 

Paraquat, a widely used herbicide, was banned in the EU in 2007, but is legal in the U.S. Until 2018, it was used in vineyards in California, including those certified sustainable by the Wine Institute's CSWA program.

I saw her in person for the first time in Federal District Court in San Francisco during the Daubert hearings over Monsanto and glyphosate. (Daubert hearings are when a judge decides what experts are qualified to speak in court. See the story I wrote at the time for Civil Eats here). I didn't realize she was the same researcher I'd followed. I just heard her speak and thought, wow, that's a remarkably intelligent person. 

I would say she single handedly probably had more to do with the judge's rapid science education on epidemiology (which he initially dismissed as sort of a loosey-goosey science) and may have been the main reason that the Judge Chhabria decided to recall her and other experts for an unanticipated extra week of scientific input so he could learn how to evaluate specious claims (especially those coming from Monsanto) in those early days court proceedings on glyphosate.

So I was more than a bit surprised and pleased to tune into a German TV new documentary from DW (the German equivalent of PBS) and there she was. The German TV producers even included graphics of her California studies in the program.

For those of you who would like to see what decent, responsible journalism looks like when it comes to pesticides, look here. (If only we had this kind of reporting in the U.S.)

Ritz is on the California Air Resources Board's Scientific Review Panel and in 2018-2019 was named one of the most influential scientific researchers for her work from 2006-2016.

In 2021, her most recently published studies include one on the association of childhood brain tumors linked to mother's exposure to pesticides. The study showed that residents living in areas where pesticides are used, not just farmworkers, were affected.

From the UCLA press release:

The research – “Residential Proximity to Pesticide Application as a Risk Factor for Childhood Central Nervous System Tumors” - is being published in an upcoming edition of the peer-reviewed journal Environment Research, and is available online. Pesticides have been investigated as possible risk factors for childhood cancer since the 1970s, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified more than 100 as possible or probable carcinogens, based on toxicological and epidemiological data.

To see the specific focus on vineyards and pesticides in the program, see this video excerpt, which begins with the vineyard pesticide use in Bordeaux, where Parkinson's has now been listed as an occupational health risk for vineyard workers.