Shaking Up the System: Professor Bloem's Bold Mission

What a month it’s been. Parkinson’s Awareness Month 2025 has been full of energy, inspiration, and powerful moments. From community walks to scientific breakthroughs, the momentum has been extraordinary. And as always, our favourite champion of Parkinson’s advocacy, Professor Bas Bloem, delivered something truly unforgettable. This month, POLITICO published a brilliant, eye-opening article about Parkinson’s that doesn’t just speak to those of us already living with it—it shouts the message out to the world. And it echoes louder than almost anything I’ve read recently. The title? “Parkinson’s is a man-made disease.” Strong words. But once you read the story, you’ll see why this isn’t just rhetoric—it’s a wake-up call. Parkinson’s: A Man-Made Tragedy? Back in 1982, something terrifying happened in California. Seven young people landed in hospital—completely paralysed and unable to speak. They weren’t elderly. They weren’t sick. They were heroin users who had unknowingly made a batch contaminated with a chemical called MPTP. It turned out this substance had destroyed a tiny, critical part of their brains—the substantia nigra, which controls movement. What happened next stunned the medical world. These people developed Parkinson’s symptoms virtually overnight. Until then, Parkinson’s was considered a disease that snuck in slowly with age. But this case proved one shocking truth: a single chemical could mimic the disease perfectly. And here’s the kicker: that chemical, MPTP, is eerily similar to a common weedkiller called paraquat—a pesticide sprayed liberally across fields in the US and Europe for decades. One man who never forgot this case is Dutch neurologist Professor Bas Bloem. At just 27, he travelled to the US to work with the doctor who made the MPTP discovery. What he learned there was nothing short of revolutionary. “A single chemical had replicated the entire disease,” Bloem recalls. “Parkinson’s wasn’t just bad luck. It could be caused.” From Clinic to Crusade Fast forward to today: Professor Bloem is 58 and one of the world’s top Parkinson’s experts, leading a renowned clinic at Radboud University in the Netherlands. His clinic sees over 60 patients a day—people shuffling through the halls, some frozen mid-step, others clutching the arms of loved ones. He’s not your typical white-coat researcher, tucked away behind a microscope. He’s tall, silver-haired, constantly moving, and refuses to stay silent. His mission? Not just to treat Parkinson’s—but to prevent it. And that means facing some uncomfortable truths about what we’ve done to our environment. The Chemical Connection Here’s what the research says: Parkinson’s has doubled in the past 20 years and is expected to double again in the next 20. It’s one of the fastest-growing brain disorders in the world—faster even than stroke or Alzheimer’s. And while genetics and age play a part, they don’t explain this explosion. In a 2024 paper, Bloem and American neurologist Ray Dorsey said it plainly: Parkinson’s is predominantly an environmental disease. Toxic chemicals like pesticides, industrial solvents, and air pollution are all in the frame. One by one, Bloem began noticing patterns: patients living near farms and fields, areas with heavy pesticide use. This is no longer just a theory. It’s a pattern. Europe’s Half Measures To Europe’s credit, some action has been taken. Paraquat was banned in 2007—but only after Sweden dragged the European Commission to court over it. Other Parkinson’s-linked pesticides like rotenone and maneb have also been phased out. But paraquat is still being manufactured in the UK and China and used in the US, Australia, and across the Global South. And the lawsuits? They're piling up—thousands of people blaming paraquat for giving them Parkinson’s. The company behind it, Syngenta, denies any link. They argue there’s no proof that paraquat, when used properly, causes harm. But leaked internal documents and withheld studies tell a murkier story. The Glyphosate Problem Another chemical raising red flags is glyphosate, the world’s most used weedkiller. You’ve probably heard of it under its brand name: Roundup. It’s in our soil, our rivers, our rain. In one US study, it showed up in 80% of urine samples. The science is mixed. Glyphosate hasn’t been proven to cause Parkinson’s. But that, says Bloem, might just reflect the problem with how we do toxicology. We test for dramatic, short-term effects—like seizures or death—not the slow, decades-long neuron death that defines Parkinson’s. And real life isn’t a sterile lab. A 2020 Japanese study found that when glyphosate and MPTP were combined, the brain damage was far worse than either substance alone. In other words, the chemical cocktail effect is real—and we’re not testing for it. A Broken System So why isn’t this front-page news? Bloem points the finger squarely at how we regulate risk. Agencies like the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) rely heavily on data from the very companies that make these chemicals. Often, they assess one chemical at a time, not the complex mixtures we’re exposed to in reality. Even EFSA’s outgoing director admits the system is flawed. “Science evolves faster than legislation,” he told POLITICO. “We’re playing catch-up.” And that’s the tragedy. Parkinson’s creeps in over decades. By the time symptoms appear, it’s already too late. A Disease We Could Prevent? Here’s the message that stuck with me most: “Parkinson’s is a man-made disease. And the tragedy is that we’re not even trying to prevent it.” Bloem’s not calling for a return to the Dark Ages of farming. He wants smarter regulation, better research, and real transparency. We need to test chemicals the way people actually encounter them—not just through isolated, short-term lab tests. Some countries, like France, Germany, and Italy, now recognise Parkinson’s as an occupational disease for farmworkers. That’s progress. But the bigger picture—the pesticide policies, the corporate lobbying, the slow regulatory machine—still needs a shake-up. Why This Matters to All of Us Whether you have Parkinson’s, love someone who does, or are lucky enough to be untouched (so far), this affects you. We are all breathing the same air. We eat the same food. We walk the same fields. This isn’t just about pesticides. It’s about our willingness to ask hard questions about the price of convenience—and to act before more lives are quietly, slowly, tragically changed. So yes—this Awareness Month, there were many bright spots. But this article? This was the lightning bolt. And once you know, you can’t unknow.