Pesticides 'linked to brain cancer'
Pesticides used in agricultural work 'could raise risk' of brain cancer
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Tuesday, 05, Jun 2007 08:01
Agricultural workers exposed to high levels of pesticides have a greater risk of developing brain tumours, a new study claims.
French researchers found that all farm workers exposed to pesticides have a greater risk of developing brain tumours, but those exposed to the highest levels have a more than twofold greater risk.
This group were found to be the most likely to develop gliomas - a type of central nervous system tumour. Those in the highest quartile of pesticide exposure have a more than threefold increased risk.
The study is one of the largest population-based case-control reports to specifically examine the role of occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides in brain tumour.
It analysed 221 cases of brain tumours and 442 individually matched controls enrolled between May 1999 and April 2001.
As well as the agricultural link, the study also found that the use of pesticides indoors for house plants seemed to be associated with a more than twofold increase in the risk of brain tumour.
But the researchers said that this finding needs further research as the study did not identify what types of agents, such as fertilisers, pesticides or other chemicals, had been used in enclosed home environments.
"Our study supports the role of pesticides in brain tumours but only for high levels of occupational exposure, in treatment tasks and also in re-entry conditions, in an agricultural setting where fungicides are predominantly used," the researchers write.
"Further studies on larger samples are needed to determine if the risk is more specifically associated with gliomas, and to investigate a possible association with specific families of pesticides.
The study is published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.