Benjamin Bement spent nearly two decades working in a chemical plant before he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 44.
Now 55, the Louisiana native told DailyMail.com that he believes nearly daily exposure to dozens of chemicals had something to do with his early diagnosis. The average age of PD diagnosis is 60 years.
Bement said that during his career he was “chronically exposed to minuscule amounts of 60 different chemicals,” despite being dressed in personal protective equipment, or PPE.
He told this website: “After 18 years of working in a chemical plant, I believe the microexposures I suffered accumulated over time and contributed to my Parkinson’s.”
In recent years, experts have theorized that exposure to certain chemicals and factory fumes is to blame for the rise in PD diagnoses in certain areas of the United States, where rates of the debilitating disease are nearly 50 percent. higher than national averages.
Benjamin Bement was diagnosed with Parkinson’s when he was 44 and believes his career, where he was exposed to numerous chemicals, was a contributing factor.
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Experts have called Southern California, the Rust Belt and the Sun Belt, which includes Louisiana, the United States’ “Parkinson’s Belt.”
A 2022 study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania identified Parkinson’s clusters in Southern California, southeastern Texas, Florida, and central Pennsylvania. Most were located in or near large industrial or agricultural operations, or both.
These groups have led researchers such as Dr. Ray Dorsey, a neurologist at the University of Rochester, to conclude that something in the environment must be increasing the local risk of Parkinson’s disease.
For 18 years, Bement worked at BASF, a chemical company with three manufacturing plants in Louisiana.
Before that, Mr. Bement worked aboard a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine, where he handles “all the chemicals that will be added to the nuclear and steam plants.” He also worked as a radiation safety officer in the oil field.
Looking at his work environment, Bement said he can’t prove anything, but believes his Parkinson’s disease was “like death by a thousand cuts.” It was exposure to every little smell, drop, and splash. It must accumulate.’
Bement said he began dealing with Parkinson’s symptoms while working at a BASF chemical plant.
The BASF group produces a wide range of chemicals, as well as fertilizers, plastics, synthetic fibers, dyes, inks and printing accessories.
DailyMail.com contacted BASF for comment but did not receive a response.
Detailing the chain of events that led to Parkinson’s diagnosis, Mr Bement said: “It should be known that Parkinson’s symptoms often ‘come on’ after a shock to the system.
‘My shock to the system was an adverse reaction to the medication.
‘I took blood pressure medication and experienced hives all over my body and a large buildup of fluid in my legs. It took me three weeks to get over the reaction, but I was never back to normal.
While the hives subsided and his legs returned to normal, Bement said he then felt extreme fatigue and his body felt “sluggish.”
He added: “I felt like someone was adding weight to my arms and wrists, an extra pound week after week.”
‘Eventually, I started walking with a cane, not because of instability but because I felt like I needed an extra limb just to support myself.
“A 20-minute walk to Walmart felt like a marathon.”
Bement also served aboard a US Navy nuclear submarine “working with all the chemicals that will be added to nuclear and steam plants.”
In addition to the physical symptoms, Bement said he noticed a number of psychological changes and didn’t feel as “sharp.”
In addition to the characteristic tremors of Parkinson’s disease, mental and emotional signs may arise, such as depression, anxiety, memory problems and dementia.
Mr Bement said: ‘I also started to notice slowness of thinking and failure to remember things.
‘At the time I was qualifying for a position that required studying and remembering piping and equipment layouts, how things flowed from one point to another, the purpose and limitations of each component. I had little difficulty learning the system 10 years earlier.
‘This time, I would study a section of the plant, walk in, and quickly begin to forget everything I had just looked at. I could remember each piece, but I couldn’t put them together. It was like my mind was a dry erase board.
‘I would write a lot of things on it and then some parts would fade away. It was alarming. I was always the one who rarely had to study for an exam. Now I couldn’t remember anything an hour later.’
As many patients discover, it took a long time for Mr. Bement to diagnose his Parkinson’s disease.
As there is currently no single or definitive test that can diagnose the disease, doctors find it difficult to identify it and there are other conditions that have similar symptoms.
It was after a neurologist referred Mr Bement to a movement disorders specialist, that a DaTscan (dopamine transporter scan) confirmed his diagnosis.
A DaTscan, which involves injecting a small amount of a radioactive drug, can show whether there is reduced function of the dopamine system in an area of the brain involved in controlling movement.
While Bement believes that working at a chemical industrial plant as an operator for nearly two decades played a role in his deteriorating health, he doesn’t have any concrete evidence and says there could be many factors.
He explained: ‘I cannot prove or even theorize what chemicals may or may not have contributed to my Parkinson’s. But the facts remain: I served aboard a US Navy nuclear submarine taking care of all the chemicals that would be added to nuclear and steam plants.
‘I worked as a radiation safety officer in the oil field for a couple of years. I worked in a chemical industrial plant for 18 years.
‘That plant was near or across the Mississippi River from sugar cane fields that used various forms of fertilizer and pest control.
‘At the plant, we had a truck that went around and sprayed all the ditches with a chemical that would prevent the growth of vegetation. We were not advised to wear any PPE when it was sprayed, although the person who sprayed it was wearing it.
Bement said he began dealing with Parkinson’s symptoms while working at a chemical plant (file image)
Dr. Tim Greenamyre, director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Pittsburgh, had been conducting laboratory studies on one of the chemicals believed to be a factor in Parkinson’s: a pesticide known as rotenone.
Rotenone is a chemical used nationwide as a pesticide on crops and livestock and to control fish populations, as well as by home gardeners.
It turns out that Dr. Greenamyre himself had developed the disease he was studying, which has no treatment and slowly erodes the control someone has over their body, eventually leading to death.
The Pennsylvania doctor suspects he developed the disease due to the same chemicals he was studying in the lab, which could be one reason the rates are so high in his area, too.
Dr. Dorsey, a neurologist at the University of Rochester, said NBC News: “If Parkinson’s disease is simply due to chance, you wouldn’t expect to see parts of the country or the world having higher rates than other parts.”
Their theory is that chemicals released by historic work in factories and farms have contributed to Parkinson’s risk.
Dr. Dorsey’s work focuses on a chemical called trichlorethylene (TCE), a chemical used in dry cleaning, degreasing, and in the manufacture of disinfectants, dyes, perfumes, and soaps.
The EPA clamped down on the chemical in 2023, proposing to ban all uses of TCE, which it deemed “extremely toxic.” It has been linked to cancer, nerve damage and reproductive problems.
In 2023 studyDr. Dorsey said studies have also linked the chemical to a 500 percent increased risk of developing Parkinson’s.
Experts aren’t sure how the chemical could do this, but they suggest it could change the way brain cells use energy, according to the study.
While Parkinson’s has impacted Mr. Bement’s life in many ways, with tremors, stiffness and poor balance among his symptoms, the veteran says he likes to keep a positive attitude and has become an advocate for the Parkinson’s Foundation in a I try to help others.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘Parkinson’s has changed my life. In fact, my wife Kelly and I agree that it may have been the best thing that ever happened to me.
‘Not in the sense that I now face difficult challenges, but before I really only worked for a salary.
‘I would work almost all the overtime I could. As a result, I was either working or recovering from work.
‘I never saw my son or my relatives. No amount of vacation was enough to rejuvenate. Who knows? Perhaps the chronic stress of working so much also had an effect.
Bement continued: “I am now surrounded by people who fight Parkinson’s every day. They’re doing things they’re not supposed to be able to do. Those are miracles.
‘I prefer to stay in the moment serving others and celebrating victories rather than thinking about what I can’t prove or blame what put me here. I choose joy. I choose to serve others. “I choose to celebrate what I can still do instead of what I can’t.”
