Yet another scientific proof of the dangerousness of pesticides on health. Researchers at Stanford University in California have identified 22 pesticides associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, of which only three were previously known. In the study published in the journal Cancer on November 4, 2024, we find in particular 2,4-D, a herbicide from the aryloxyacid family widely used in the United States and available in France.
Prostate cancer is most common in men : “But modifiable risk factors remain elusive,” specify the scientists. In this study, they examined the potential role of exposure to 295 agricultural pesticides in the incidence of this type of tumor and mortality in the United States.
Among the new substances identified, we find herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and a fumigant (it evaporates into a gaseous product on contact with water or air). Among them, four pesticides are associated with prostate cancer mortality : trifluralin, cloransulam-methyl, diflufenzopyr and thiamethoxam. “Only trifluralin is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a possible human carcinogen, while the other three are considered unlikely to be carcinogenic or have evidence of non-carcinogenicity”, the authors of the study are alarmed in a press release.
“This research demonstrates the importance of studying environmental exposures, such as pesticide use, to potentially explain some of the geographic variation we observe in prostate cancer incidence and deaths across the United States,” lead author Simon John Christoph Soerensen of the Stanford University School of Medicine said in a statement. “Building on these findings, we can make advance our efforts to identify risk factors of this type of tumor and work to reduce the number of men affected.”
Recognition of occupational illness
In a decree published on December 22, 2021 in the Official Journal in France, prostate cancers linked to occupational exposure to pesticides are recognized as occupational diseases. “The term ‘pesticides’ refers to products for agricultural use and products intended for the maintenance of green spaces (phytosanitary products or plant protection products), as well as biocides and veterinary antiparasitics, whether or not they are authorized at the time of the request”, specifies the decree.
The law provides for a takeover period of 40 years, subject to an exposure period of 10 years. This concerns in particular the professions exposed during the handling or use of these products, by direct contact or with crops, surfaces, treated animals or during the maintenance of machines intended for the application of pesticides, and by inhalation.
Pesticides considered endocrine disruptors
This decision was particularly expected in the Antilles, where chlordecone, a pesticide used between 1972 and 1993 in banana plantations, infiltrated the soil, polluting water and agricultural production. Pollution known to the authorities since 1960.
The population of Guadeloupe and Martinique holds this sad record for prostate cancer with an incidence rate of 227 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. “This pesticide is considered a endocrine disruptorbut also a substance toxic to reproduction, carcinogenic and responsible for severe neurological disorders”, explains Dr Allan Lipsker, urological surgeon and andrologist in Paris.
“Despite the cessation, 30 years ago, of its use in the Antilles as an insecticide, chlordecone, persistent in the environmentcontinues to contaminate populations”, worries Inserm in a press release published in February 2023.
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