A new study has found a connection between air pollution and Parkinson’s disease. The study considered fine pollution from car exhaust, grass fires, and industrial pollution, and concluded that in areas where the pollution was high, so was the number of Parkinson’s cases. The complete study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th Annual Meeting.

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“We were able to find that people living in regions with high levels air pollution had a 25 percent greater risk of Parkinson’s disease compared to those living in regions with low levels of air pollution,” Brittany Krzyzanowski, Ph.D., geographer and postdoctoral research fellow at Barrow Neurological Institute told MDlinx. 

“Our findings suggest that reducing air pollution levels might reduce the incidence of Parkinson’s disease,” she continued.

The study started its examination in 2009 with the more than 20 million people enrolled in Medicare. Of these, more than 83,000 people had Parkinson’s disease. These people were then mapped based on their location in the United States. 

“In the highest exposure group, 434 new Parkinson’s disease cases developed per every 100,000 people compared to 359 cases in the lowest exposure group,” a release stated.

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“We found low incidence of Parkinson’s disease in central Montana and on the border between Idaho and Wyoming—two regions with relatively low levels of air pollution,” says Krzyzanowski. 

The study did consider risk factors such as smoking and age, but it could not account for any genetic markers though Krzyzanowski says they would like to expand the study to include that component.