Pesticides cancer risks

Problems that rank relatively high in cancer and non-cancer health risks but low in ecological and welfare risks include hazardous air pollutants, indoor radon, indoor air pollution other than radon, pesticide application, exposure to consumer products, and worker exposures to chemicals... 

Other pesticide risks Consumer and professional Exterminator uses estimated cancers of 150 annually. Poor data. 

Barthel E. 1981. [Cancer risk in pesticide exposed agricultural workers]. Arch Geschwulstforsch 51 579-585. (German)... 

IARC. 1983. lARC Monographs on the evaluation of the carcinogenic risk of chemicals to humans. Vol. 30. Miscellaneous Pesticides. Lyon, France International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization. 

Bradlow HE, Davis DL, Lin G, et al. 1995. Effects of pesticides on the ratio of 16a/2-hydroxyestrone A biologic marker of breast cancer risk. Environ Health Perspect 103(Suppl. 7) 147-150. 

From the above it can be concluded that the risk for lung cancer induction from chronic indoor exposure to Rn-d is unlikely to be higher than 1.10 4/mSv. in order to understand the magnitude of this risk it has to be emphasized that man can be exposed to a multitude of different hazardous materials in the indoor atmosphere besides Rn-d, such as formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrosamines, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, asbestos and pesticides (Gammage and Kaye, 1985). 

Snedeker SM (2001) Pesticides and breast cancer risk A review of DDT, DDE and Dieldrin. Environmental Health Perspectives 109 35—47... 

Brown, L.M., A. Blair, R. Gibson, G.D. Everett, K.P. Cantor, L.M. Schuman, L.F. Burmeister, S.F. Van Lier, and F. Dick. 1990. Pesticide exposures and other agricultural risk factors for leukemia among men in Iowa and Minnesota. Cancer Res. 50 6585-6591. 

National Research Council There is no evidence that pesticides or natural toxins in food contribute significantly to cancer risk in the U.S. ... 

In a nested case-control study of cancers associated with chemical exposures in the wood industry, Kauppinen et al. (1986) found a significantly increased risk of respiratory system cancer associated with exposure to phenol and phenol in wood dust. As is often the case in occupational settings, these exposures were confounded by smoking and exposures to other materials like pesticides. The increased risk observed for exposure to phenol was almost 5-fold (odds ratio of 4.94), but showed no dose-related increase. This risk dropped to 4-fold with adjustments for smoking history, and to less than 3-fold (and non-significant) when workers exposed to both phenols and pesticides were excluded from the analysis. 

Public and regulatory concern over the potential cancer risks posed by pesticide residues in the diet has been significant over the past two decades. While the consumption of foods containing residues of pesticides has not been correlated with the development of human cancers, pestieide exposure has been linked to some cancers in agricultural workers. In most cases, however,... 

Such estimates yield an exaggerated level of exposure, but for many pesticides, exposure at the TMRC is far below the RfD and does not result in cancer risks greater than 1 x 10 . In some cases, where the exaggerated levels of exposure for the TMRC exceed the RfD or cause the cancer risk to exceed 1 X 10 , the exposure calculations may require refinements, such as using more realistic residue levels or adjusting pesticide use estimations. If these or other more comprehensive adjustments still do not result in acceptable levels of exposure, the EPA will not approve tolerances for the pesticide. 

It has become customary among cancer epidemiologists to talk about certain lifestyle factors as important contributors to cancer risk. Lifestyle factors (smoking, dietary patterns, alcohol consumption) are assumed to be largely under the control of individuals. These are distinguishable from factors that are less directly in the control of individuals (occupation, medicines, consumer products), and those over which individuals have little or no control (food additives, pesticides, environmental pollutants). Just how much control individuals have over the various lifestyle factors is of course much debated. 

Inaeased risk of various cancers (e.g., lymphatics, blood, stomach, prostate, testes, brain, and soft tissues) was reported upon exposure to pesticides (Zahm and Blair 1993 Hayes et al. 1995 Zahm et al. 1997). Children s cancer, including brain tumors, leukemia, non-Hodgkin s lymphoma, sarcoma, and Wilms tumor due to direct or parental exposure to pesticides also has been determined (Fear et al. 1998 Kristensen et al. 1996 Pogoda and Preston-Martin 1997 Sharpe et al. 1995 Buckley et al. 1994). Often, the risk of cancer due to exposure to pesticides has been higher in children than in adults (Zahm and Ward 1998). Moreover, birth defects, including limb-reduction defects, have been linked to exposures to pesticides (Restrepo et al. 1990 Schwartz and LoGerfo 1998 Lin et al. 1994), as has a higher-than-normal risk of stillborn births (Pastore et al. 1997). 

Cohort studies of agricultural chemical production workers found decreased mortality from all cancers among workers who had probable exposure to atrazine. Findings of an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma among farmers could not be attributed to atrazine exposure when adjustment was made for other pesticide exposure. ... 

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