As a teenager, EenVandaag Radio reporter Laura Kors peeled tulip bulbs in West Friesland summer after summer. When, during a radio report, she meets Parkinson’s patient Ger Geurts, who probably owes his illness to exposure to agricultural poisons, Laura’s alarm bells go off. Could she now also get Parkinson’s disease? And what about her family, friends and fellow villagers? In the new AVROTROS and NPO Radio 1 podcast Will I get Parkinson’s? Laura tries to get an answer to this question, among other things.
Top expert neurologist Bas Bloem of Radboud University Nijmegen says he cannot take away Laura’s concerns. This is the beginning of a search for the risks of exposure to pesticides. Is there any way to know for sure you’re getting Parkinson’s disease? Or is it some kind of lottery, one you don’t want to win?
Laura examines what is known about the link between Parkinson’s and pesticides. Why aren’t they just completely banned? And what happens if you actually get Parkinson’s disease?
The 5-part podcast series Will I get Parkinson’s? is not only the story of Laura’s personal search for the risks, but also tells the experiences of people who deal with the disease on a daily basis and the sometimes profound effects of the treatment they choose. Laura travels to the region where she was born and raised. There she also speaks to farmers who regularly get a middle finger from passers-by when they sit on their sprayers. What do they think of the health risks of their pesticide use? And – last but not least – what was actually on the bulbs when Laura herself was working there as a teenager?
Listen to the trailer here.
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