U-M doctors attribute rise in ALS cases to environmental pollution
Doctors in Michigan are seeing an increase in ALS patients. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
The increase in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is attributed to environmental pollution, specifically in the agriculture and manufacturing industries.
Eva Feldman is the director of the ALS Center of Excellence at University of Michigan. She says cases of the disease that causes people to lose their ability to speak or move are rising.
“Our research shows in the blood of our patients a fivefold higher level of legacy pesticides, higher toxins in their blood, also evidence of being in polluted air in the past.”
Feldman says this clear association of ALS patients being exposed to a polluted environment is an urgent reason to clean up polluted sites that leak into our drinking water, soil and lakes.
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