This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A. J. Hudson, MD
Dept of Clinical Neurological Sciences University Hospital London, Ontario N6A 5A5, Canada

Arch Neurol. 1977;34(11):721.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Recently, Crocker et al¹ have shown that exposure to petroleum oil by-products can markedly enhance the pathogenicity of virus, raising the possibility that widespread use of chemicals of this kind might be a factor in causing lethal human viral disease. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease in which chemical poisoning and infection by virus are viewed as possible causes. Accordingly, a detailed inquiry was made into environmental contact with toxic chemicals in six ALS subjects (five men and one woman) with onset of disease in their mid-30s. The age of these subjects is generally considered young for ALS; and if toxic chemicals are important, contact with these likely would be relatively recent and possibly of greater degree than in older persons.

The most common potentially injurious chemicals contacted were (1) liquid petrochemicals—solvents, fuels, and lubricants; (2) insecticides—notably pyrethrin and organophosphate anticholinesterase compounds; and (3) herbicides—especially (2,4-dichlorophenoxy)acetic . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?