WASHINGTON, D.C. -- United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye is pleased to announce that the Department of Defense, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command has awarded a $1.79 million grant to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical and Regional Office Center in Honolulu and the Pacific Health Research Institute to conduct a three year study to investigate the possible association of environmental toxins including pesticides, herbicides, solvents, and gasoline with degenerative conditions of the brain of Japanese American men living in Hawaii. The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study/Honolulu Heart Program at Kuakini Medical Center, funded by the National Institute on Aging and the VA, will play a central role in the project by sharing data gathered over the last 33 years.

"I am pleased that this collaborative project will provide information to help detect genetic and environmental risk factors for brain diseases such as Parkinson's disease that affect 270,000 of the older population," stated Senator Inouye.

In addition to receiving and analyzing data gathered in the past, studies will be conducted on structural lesions in the brain that are associated with Parkinson's disease.

The study will be under the direction of Dr. G. Webster Ross, neurologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical and Regional Office Center and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.