As we know the increased incidence of cancer is related with the use/application of enormous amount of pesticides to the crops. Though it is claimed here and there but finding a strong evidence that the pesticides use is one of the cause of cancer is apparent. Can anyone in this field help me to find an answer?
Low doses of pesticide over long time periods (for organophosphates) are supposed to cause problems..but it is difficult to do such experiments with mammalian cells in culture, and prove that organophosphate pesticides actually cause cell damage. Organochlorine pesticides like DDt may act quickly, and it should be easier to study their effects on cultured cells. In fact, there maybe data for Carcinogenic action of DDT. The high levels of DDT in milk of mothers in New Delhi was shown many years ago..but I do not know if it was correlated with incidence of cancer. Endosulfan is also known to cause birth defects (I think), but there are some studies suggesting it can cause cancer in Mice. There are papers on organophosphates and their molecular effects..One can check if free Microarray data is available at the GEO web site. Such genetic data can be analysed from cancer viewpoint. Hope this helps! Good luck.
Low doses of Organophosphate pesticides act over long time periods, so it is difficult to prove an experimental cause-effect relationship between such pesticides and cancer. Organochlorine pesticides like DDT act more quickly. There may be data on DDt’s carcinogenic effect...same is true for Endosulfan. There are studies on effect of pesticides at the gene level. You can check the GEO database to find free Microarray data and analyze it yourself with different free software tools (like BRB tool). Hope this helps!
Yes, there are several publications available. Check the following ones:
Risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia following parental occupational exposure to pesticides Glass, D.C., Reid, A., Bailey, H.D., Milne, E., Fritschi, L. 2012 Occupational and Environmental Medicine 69 (11) , pp. 846-849 0
Exposure to pesticides and risk of childhood cancer: A meta-analysis of recent epidemiological studies Vinson, F., Merhi, M., Baldi, I., Raynal, H., Gamet-Payrastre, L. 2011 Occupational and Environmental Medicine 68 (9) , pp. 694-702 15
Childhood leukaemia and parental occupational exposure to pesticides: A systematic review and meta-analysis Van Maele-Fabry, G., Lantin, A.-C., Hoet, P., Lison, D. 2010 Cancer Causes and Control 21 (6) , pp. 787-809 13
A systematic review and meta-analysis of childhood leukemia and parental occupational pesticide exposure Wigle, D.T., Turner, M.C., Krewski, D. 2009 Environmental Health Perspectives 117 (10) , pp. 1505-1513
Nafiz Delen (Prof. Retaired from Dep. Plant Prot. Ege Univ. Izmir, Turkey)
Pesticides, if have canserogenic risk, can couse cancer after uptakeing very low doses in a long period (after years). On the other hand, no body knows what pesticides are contaminated to the consumed foods, and it is not possible to make the researchs on the cancerogenic effects of the pesticides on the humans. Only it can be said some risks after the animal tests. According these tests, we are suspect cancerogenic risks of the pesticides. For saying to any pesticide, is cancerogenic, epidemiological studies must be done. Usually to make these epidemiological studies with humans is not possible.
Now, some pesticides which are already in use, especially some fungicides have cancerogenic risks. For example alkylenebis (dithiocarbamete) fungicides maneb's, mancozeb's, metiram's or propineb's breaking product ethylenethiourea (ETU) or propylenthiourea (PTU) can happend thiroid cancer. On the other hand, there is some suspicions from dimethyldithiocarbamate fungicide thiram and, from trichloromethylthiocarboximide fungicides captan and folpet,
Regards,
There are 2 separate points. First, is the ability of a particular pesticide to increase risk for a specific cancer. David and Nafeez gave good examples of this. The second point is that a particular pesticide actually causes cancer..this is very hard to prove. A good example of direct effects of a chemical is the ability of nicotine to damage DNA. This mechanism explains the link between nicotine and lung cancer. Hope this helps!
Thank you very much for the valuable information and indeed I need to know about the relationship of blood cancer and colon cancer with pesticides. Here are two examples- are pure vegetarians who ate cabbage and leafy vegetables as their favourite dishes. They died due to these cancers. Jaffna in Sri Lanka consumes huge amount of pesticides and is the number 1 district in Sri Lanka with cancer patients. We still search for evidences and wish to work on with any one to find a solution for this
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