@johnbishop Your post struck a chord with me. I worked along with print press operators and hands-on photo print processing for years. Although I had minor exposure, it was increasingly concerning to learn how harmful those chemical were as reports became more widely disseminated about their effects.

I’m curious if you were at IBM in NY. We were there back in the day, I almost took a job at Union Carbide (chemicals, chemicals, chemicals) but my husband and I stayed in the print and graphic arts industry. But I digress.

I’ve come to think that some of the best patient care is at facilities that are located in the hub of disease, where there is also money to fund research and good health insurance coverage. For instance, top cancer centers are nearby high cancer rates, in areas with good funding.

For neurology, I’d be looking for answers at Columbia Presbyterian NY Hospital, Henry Ford, and Mayo Clinic Rochester. I’m sure there are other great neurology centers, too. I find it difficult to specifically look for where the best research is being done on peripheral neuropathy. Central neuropathy seems to have the corner on the market.

I worked in a steel and wire mill as an electrician and was using trichloroethylene to clean grease off motors etc. My brother was an electrician at Caterpillar. Worked with trichloroethylene. He has Parkinson's and I have PN. I know it's affect on Parkinson's but not on PN. Conencedence ? I wish I knew.

Hi John, I was a manufacturing engineer most of my career with the companies AB Chance in Centralia, MO, Continental Products in Mexico, MO, Watts Water in Springfield, MO and Gates Rubber in Columbia, MO. I was exposed to many chemicals during the past 40 years but these seem to be the most likely to have links to neuropathy 1) From AB Chance (Methylene Chloride, we used it as a general solvent from 1985-1995 with no PPE. We literally washed our hands with it to remove epoxy. The fumes from anhydride cure epoxy were everywhere and not vented or removed during processing. We processed 100's to 1000's of pounds of epoxy every day. Isocyanate from foam blowing. Again, we processed 100's of pounds every day and there was no fume extraction.) 2) Continental Products (Isopropyl Alcohol - used in the printing process as an ink solvent and thinner. We did have extraction at the printing press but it was also used as a general solvent. Nitrile gloves were provided but not always used. I'd estimated we used 30-100 lbs of solvent daily 3) Watts Water (various acids in open baths for the etching and cleaning of copper pipe 100's of pounds of open baths 4) Gates Rubber Products (benzene in low quantities - it's a known nerve degenerative agent with a history of causing neuropathy, toluene 100's of pounds daily mostly vented through an oxidizer, ammonia 10's of lbs, formaldehyde 10's of lbs, and isocyanate off gassed during productions that exceeded OSHA/EPA limits - this was a known fact that Executive Management ignored for several years because of the Capital Cost to remediate.
I think it's interesting that I find many documents that anecdotally link neuropathy to most of these chemicals but no clinical research that supports the problem.