quote:

Tetrachloroethylene exposure and risk of schizophrenia: offspring of dry cleaners in a population birth cohort, preliminary findings.

Department of Epidemiology,
Mailman School of Public Health,
Columbia University,
New York, New York, 10032, USA. mcp20@columbia.edu

Tetrachloroethylene is a solvent used in dry cleaning with reported neurotoxic effects. Using proportional hazard methods, we examined the relationship between parental occupation as a dry cleaner and risk for schizophrenia in a prospective population-based cohort of 88,829 offspring born in Jerusalem from 1964 through 1976, followed from birth to age 21-33 years. Of 144 offspring whose parents were dry cleaners, 4 developed schizophrenia. We observed an increased incidence of schizophrenia in offspring of parents who were dry cleaners (RR=3.4, 95% CI, 1.3-9.2, p=0.01).

Tetrachloroethylene exposure warrants further investigation as a risk factor for schizophrenia.

PMID: 17113267 [PubMed - in process]

I wonder whether they picked the wrong chemical in the drycleaning?

2-butoxyethanol is used in dry cleaning business and in the making of plastics

Mimics true psychiatric disorder & more

Direct exposure looks like flu, farting, sniffles, diarrhea

I suspect you will find this just as much among civilians & military with strong CFIDS, CFS, FM symptoms ... going back to all war periods especially: WWII, Vietnam, Korean, Gulf Wars, others