The Nation - News from Oct. 23, 1987

An unusually high incidence of multiple sclerosis has been found in workers at a factory that uses zinc, but researchers said they cannot tell if the zinc contributes to the development of the illness. The incidence of multiple sclerosis at the undisclosed factory in the Rochester, N.Y., area was three to four times what would have been expected, said Dr. Carol Stein of the Department of Preventive, Family and Rehabilitative Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. “A heavy metal such as zinc may be a factor, like a trigger mechanism that would have some relationship to turning on the disease in some people who are already predisposed for some reason,” Stein said.