In areas near agricultural production, pesticides increase the risk of developing cancer as much as smoking, according to a new nationwide study.
Its authors found strong links between environmental pesticides and leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, bladder, colon, lung, and pancreatic cancers, as well as cancer combinations.
The researchers compared the risks of pesticides to the known cancer risk associated with smoking cigarettes to provide an easily understood measure of risk.
While the authors assert that “pesticides are an essential feature of modern-day agriculture” — resulting in robust crop yields on which the planet’s food security depends — it spotlights the inherent danger in relying on them.
There are few innovations as significant in agriculture as the development and use of pesticides,” they write.
To assess associations between pesticides tracked by the United States Geological Survey and cancers, the researchers analyzed county-level data from across the U.S. They identified pesticides reported in each area, and cancer cases, as well as the incidence of cigarette smoking and other possible factors.
Though individual pesticides have been linked to cancers, the study emphasizes that mixtures of pesticides — the manner in which they’re typically delivered to crops — significantly multiply their carcinogenic risk.
This risk is not confined to areas where agriculture actually occurs. Many communities under the greatest threat are visited by hazardous air- and water-borne pesticides that emanate from neighboring farms.
States such as Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Missouri exemplified the strongest pesticide/cancer links, suggesting a connection between the corn grown in the area and the carcinogenic risk in its production. The study also spotlights fruit production in California and Florida.
The study is published in Frontiers in Cancer Control and Society.
