A global team of scientists are hailing a major breakthrough in finding a significant link between exposure to an industrial solvent and Parkinson's disease.
A team of scientists from the U.S, Canada, Germany and Argentina found that individuals who had been exposed in the workplace to trichloroethylene (TCE) were six-times more likely to develop Parkinson's.
Due to concerns about its toxicity, the use of TCE in the food and pharmaceutical industries has been banned across much of the world since the 1970s.
However, the chemical is still used as a degreasing agent.
Dr Samuel Goldman of The Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California, who co-led the study published in the journal Annals of Neurology, told the BBC: 'Our study confirms that common environmental contaminants may increase the risk of developing Parkinson's, which has considerable public health implications.
'Our findings, as well as prior case reports, suggest a lag time of up to 40 years between TCE exposure and onset of Parkinson's, providing a critical window of opportunity to potentially slow the disease before clinical symptoms appear.'
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