The four substances associated with mortality are the herbicides trifluralin, cloransulam-methyl and diflufenzopyr and the insecticide thiamethoxam. Among these substances, several have been banned in the European Union. But the authors of the study are alarmed in a press release: “only trifluralin is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a ‘possible human carcinogen,’ while the other three are considered ‘unlikely to cause harm’.” ‘be carcinogenic’ or have evidence of ‘non-carcinogenicity’.
Better identify risk factors
“This research demonstrates the importance of studying environmental exposures, such as pesticide use, to potentially explain some of the geographic variation we see in prostate cancer incidence and deaths across states -United,” said lead author Simon John Christoph Soerensen of the Stanford University School of Medicine. “Building on these findings, we can advance our efforts to identify risk factors for prostate cancer and work to reduce the number of men affected by this disease.” »
In France, prostate cancer linked to exposure to pesticides has been recognized as an occupational disease since 2021. The law provides for a treatment period of 40 years, subject to a duration of exposure of 10 years. This concerns in particular professions exposed to pesticides during the handling or use of these products, by contact or by inhalation or by contact with treated crops, surfaces, animals or during the maintenance of machines intended for application of pesticides.
As a reminder, more than 90% of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique is contaminated by chlordecone – an insecticide formerly used in banana plantations -, according to Public Health France. Antillean populations have one of the highest incidence rates of prostate cancer in the world.
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