Study warns cancer risk from pesticides may be as bad as smoking

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Pesticides are potentially as bad as smoking for increasing the risk of some forms of cancer, warns a new study.

Researchers assessed the impact of commonly used agricultural weedkillers on the incidence of the disease.

They found that pesticide use is associated with increased cancer risk.

In modern agriculture, pesticides are considered essential to ensure high enough crop yields and food security.

However, the chemicals can adversely affect plant and animal life as well as people exposed to them.

Now, researchers in the United States have put increased cancer risk through agricultural pesticide use into context with smoking, a better-understood cancer risk factor.

Study senior author Professor Isain Zapata, of Rocky Vista University in Colorado , said: “In our study, we found that for some cancers, the effect of agricultural pesticide usage is comparable in magnitude to the effect of smoking.

“We accept that a person who is not a farmer living in a community with heavy agricultural production is exposed to many of the pesticides used in their vicinity. It becomes part of their environment."

The research team found that in such an environment, the impact of pesticide use on cancer incidence rivaled that of smoking.

The strongest association was among non-Hopkins lymphoma, leukemia, and bladder cancer. In these types of cancers, the effects of pesticide exposure were even more pronounced than the effects of smoking.

Zapata said: “We present a list of major pesticide contributors for some specific cancers, but we highlight strongly that it is the combination of all of them and not just a single one that matters."

Because pesticides aren’t used one at a time, the researchers said it is "unlikely" that one alone is to blame.

The team included 69 pesticides for which use data is available via the United States Geological Survey .

Zapata said: “In the real world, it is not likely that people are exposed to a single pesticide, but more to a cocktail of pesticides within their region."

The researchers said their study is the first comprehensive evaluation of cancer risk from a population-based perspective at a national level.

No large-scale study had previously examined the big picture and put pesticide use in context with a cancer risk factor that is no longer questioned, such as smoking.

Zapata said: “It is difficult to explain the magnitude of an issue without presenting any context, so we incorporated smoking data.

"We were surprised to see estimates in similar ranges."

The researchers said that while the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Cancer Control and Society , extends knowledge about pesticide use, cancer risk factors are "complicated" and assessing the big picture may not reflect individual outcomes.

For example, in regions where more crops are grown the associations between pesticides and cancer incidence were more striking.

Zapata said: “Every time I go to the supermarket to buy food, I think of a farmer who was part of making that product.

"These people often put themselves at risk for my convenience and that plays a role in my appreciation for that product."

He added: "It definitely has had an impact on how I feel when that forgotten tomato in the fridge goes bad and I have to put it in the trash."

The post Study warns cancer risk from pesticides may be as bad as smoking appeared first on Talker .