A recent study points to the responsibility of 22 pesticides associated with the occurrence of prostate cancer. What are they?
A recent American study points to the responsibility of 22 pesticides associated with the occurrence of prostate cancer. 19 of them were not known until now and four are believed to be linked to an increased risk of mortality.
Most common cancer in men
The most common cancer in men, constantly increasing, evaluated the associations between exposure to 295 pesticides and the occurrence of prostate cancer, for each county in the United States.
In all, 22 pesticides used across the Atlantic were systematically associated with prostate cancer, 4 of them increased the risk of mortality. To achieve these results, the scientists allowed a period of 10 to 18 years to pass between exposure and the incidence of cancer, the latter being slow growing.
Three of the 22 pesticides identified had already been linked to prostate cancer in previous studies. We find in particular 2.4D, the pesticide most used in the United States, and also available in France, classified as a probable carcinogen for humans.
American researchers have identified 19 new pesticides which had not yet been associated with prostate cancer. These include 10 herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and a fumigant (pesticide that evaporates or decomposes into gaseous products).
Substances banned by the European Union
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.”
Recognized as an occupational disease since 2021
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.
The West Indian populations among the most affected in the world
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.
