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In 1982, seven intravenous drug users injected what they thought was heroin and rapidly developed moderate to severe movement disorders indistinguishable from Parkinson's disease. The disorders proved to be permanent. The street drug they injected was found to contain 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). While some similar sort of chemical insult may play a role in the development of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), a key distinction between PD and the ailment suffered by these addicts is that Parkinson's disease begins mildly and progresses slowly. For this reason, an attempt was made to identify drug abusers who might have come in contact with MPTP but who developed only mild symptoms and who therefore did not come to the attention of the medical community. Ultimately, 22 such cases were found and studied. These patients, all of whom were in the right time and place to have come in contact with the MPTP, and who described acute symptoms consistent with this contact, were found to have symptoms very similar to those of mild Parkinson's disease. The symptoms of rigidity, bradykinesia (or slow movement), and postural instability were indistinguishable from those of Parkinson's disease. Only a milder degree of resting tremor distinguished the addicts from the patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. This difference may be accounted for by the fact that the average age of the drug users was much lower than that of the Parkinson's patients. Resting tremor is thought, in cases of PD, to be less severe among the young. It remains to be seen if the drug abusers with mild Parkinson's symptoms progress to more serious symptoms with time. The results of this study indicate that at least one toxic agent is capable of causing a symptoms indistinguishable from those of Parkinson's disease. Further study will determine if, like Parkinson's disease, the neurological damage which results from MPTP toxicity progresses with time. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

The article focuses on the monitoring of the effect of air pollutants particulate matter (PM) and ozone to health by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Topics include its association to various health conditions including lung cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and premature death, the implication of the ozone exposure to health conditions, and the data sources used in the assessment such as population estimate, education and income estimate, and PM and ozone count.

Abstract. Two outbreaks of group A streptococcal abscesses following receipt of diphtheria-tetanus toxoid-pertussis (DTP) vaccine from different manufacturers were reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 1982. The clustering of the immunization times of cases, the isolation of the same serotype of Streptococcus from all cases in each outbreak, and the absence of reported abscesses associated with receipt of the same lots of vaccine in other regions of the country, suggest that each outbreak was probably caused by contamination of a single 15-dose vial of vaccine. The preservative thimerosal was present within acceptable limits in unopened vials from the same lot of DTP vaccine in each outbreak. Challenge studies indicate that a strain of Streptococcus from one of the patients can survive up to 15 days in DTP vaccine at 4 Celsius. Contamination of vials during manufacturing would have required survival of streptococci for a minimum of 8 months. Preservatives in multidose vaccine vials do not prevent short-term bacterial contamination. Options to prevent further clusters of streptococcal abscesses are discussed. The only feasible and cost-effective preventive measure now available is careful attention to sterile technique when administering vaccine from multidose vials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]