It's a chilly night in Dean, just outside Ballarat in the heart of Victoria's potato country. The local town hall has seen generations of farming families through its doors for celebrations, concerts, weddings and school speech nights. But tonight the mood is somber.
These farmers and their families are here to ask questions about an incurable disease that is devastating their community. "The growth of Parkinson's across the world has been called a pandemic — it's the world's fastest-growing neurodegenerative disease," a visiting neurologist tells the crowd.
"Many people misunderstand that it's a genetic condition. But for the most part, it appears to be mostly environmental. "Wesley Thevathasan has been diagnosing and treating patients with Parkinson's disease for more than a decade — many of them from rural communities like this one. Over an hour, he lays bare the facts.
"I'd say that farmers are overly represented in the cohort of patients I see with Parkinson's disease," Dr Thevathasan says."And this is not surprising because we know that rural living and potential exposure to pesticides is a likely risk factor for developing the condition."All sorts of agents have been implicated, but the evidence is strongest for paraquat."
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