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Pesticides may pose as much risk as smoking

Pesticides may pose as much risk as smoking

 


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Exposure to environmental pesticides from industrial agriculture may increase cancer risk as much as smoking, a new study suggests. ArtMarie/Getty Images
  • Exposure to environmental pesticides from industrial agriculture may increase cancer risk to the same extent as smoking.
  • In a new study, researchers correlated cancer rates in geographic regions based on pesticide use.
  • This study does not prove causation. More research is needed to understand how pesticides in the environment affect cancer risk.

Is pesticide exposure as bad as smoking in terms of cancer risk?

New scientific research suggests that it may be.

The study was published in the journal Cancer prevention and society at the forefront, Strong associations have been found between the presence of pesticides in the environment and several cancers. leukemianon-Hodgkin's disease LymphomaThese include bladder cancer, lung cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

The authors used population and geographic data from sources including the CDC, the Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Geological Survey to examine the correlation between incidence of these cancers and pesticide use in different regions across the United States.

These types of studies, known as ecological studies, are used to identify broad trends but do not prove causation, as the study authors acknowledge.

The trends identified between pesticides and cancer risk are: smoking.

“We found that all cancers are affected — everything is affected by pesticides — and it's very similar to what we see with smoking: as you smoke more, your risk of all cancers increases, even though some cancers are affected more than others. And that's exactly what happened here.” Dr. Isain Zapata, “The study is a very good indicator of how effective the treatment is,” researcher David L. Gottlieb, assistant professor of research statistics at Rocky Vista University and lead author of the study, told Healthline.

Dr. Lauren Lipworth Dr. Gregory H. Schneider, professor of medicine and vice chief of epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, told Healthline that because of the study's design, the findings should be interpreted with caution.

“The conclusion that can be drawn from this kind of study is that there may be some etiological clues, there may be some indication of an association between different types of cancer and patterns of pesticide use at this large ecological population level, but in terms of individual-level data, this study doesn't provide that,” she said.

This study is the first to comprehensively examine the effects of pesticides on cancer risk across a large area and population of the United States.

The researchers used reported data on 69 pesticides to create geographic regions, essentially isolating areas of U.S. agricultural use based on reported pesticide use.

For example, the Midwest, the largest corn-producing region of the United States, has the highest levels of pesticides in the environment, while the Great Plains region from north Texas to North Dakota has the lowest levels.

After identifying these geographic regions, the authors examined the incidence of cancer in these areas.

They hypothesize that cancer risk is likely related to differences in pesticide use and type of agricultural production, as pesticide use also varies by activity. For example, California, the largest vegetable-producing region in the United States, is likely to have different cancer rates than the Midwest, where corn is the main crop.

Zapata told Healthline that this methodology gives a more holistic impression of how exposure occurs, noting that in the real world, individuals are rarely exposed to a single pesticide, but rather to a “cocktail” of different contaminants.

“You're going to be exposed to pesticides that are drifting from farms near where you live. There may be industrial residues that are specific to agricultural activities in that area,” he said.

A total of 69 pesticides reported nationwide were studied, and when considered individually, many were associated with the development of a variety of cancers.

  • Atrazine is used to control grasses, which the study found to be consistently the biggest contributor to increased risk of all cancers and colon cancer.
  • Glyphosate It is sold commercially as a weed killer called Roundup and has been linked to an increased risk of all cancers, colon cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
  • Dicamba It is often used in corn and soybean cultivation. It has been associated with an increased risk of colon and pancreatic cancer.
  • Dimethomorph It is a fungicide and has been identified in areas where there is a high risk of leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Despite these findings, Zapata told Healthline that the goal of the study is not to stop pesticide use.

“We're not saying to the Midwest, 'You can't grow corn anymore,'” he said.

“We need to eat, we need products from agriculture, and we need to use these chemicals to get the efficiency we need to be economically sustainable. So it's a cost-benefit, risk-benefit approach,” Zapata said.

The study authors controlled for major confounding factors, such as smoking, socioeconomic factors, and agricultural land area, but not all confounding factors can be accounted for when using population data.

To be clear, the nature of the study does not allow one to be attributed to the other, even in areas with high rates of cancer or pesticide use, but it does send a signal that further research is needed.

“No causal inference can be made between the actual behavior of individuals or groups.” Pesticide exposure And you also have to take into account your individual cancer risk,” Lipworth says.

The study did not distinguish between groups of people, such as farm workers who may be directly exposed to pesticides, and people living in surrounding areas, whose exposure may vary depending on distance and other factors.

“It's really important to do individual-level exposure assessments because some people are occupationally exposed, some are farmers, but there are also people who live with farmers in the same area and are exposed in other ways. So individual-level exposure assessments are really important to understand this kind of scientific relevance,” Lipworth said.

Nationwide population studies have found widespread associations between environmental pesticide use and many types of cancer.

Across different regions of the United States, 69 pesticides were associated with increased risk of colon, pancreatic, lung, and other cancers.

The design of this study can only show association, not causation. Further research is needed to better understand how exposure to pesticides in the environment affects cancer risk at the individual level.

Sources

1/ https://Google.com/

2/ https://www.healthline.com/health-news/pesticides-cancer-risk-smoking

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