A new study has revealed that pesticides carry the same amount of cancer risk as smoking.
According to Frontiers, a study published in the Frontiers in Cancer Control and Society compared the increasing risk of cancer through agricultural pesticides with smoking for a better understanding of cancer risk.
A senior author of the study, Dr. Isain Zapata, said, “In our study, we found that for some cancers, the effect of agricultural pesticide usage is comparable in magnitude to the effect of smoking.”
For this US-wide study, researchers did not only observe farmers who actively use pesticides but also the people and communities who live in that heavily pesticide-exposed environment.
He explained, “We accept that a person who is not a farmer living in a community with heavy agricultural production is exposed to many of the pesticides used in their vicinity. It becomes part of their environment.”
They found that living in a pesticide-exposed environment increases the risk of cancer equivalent to tobacco smoking.
Zapata further added, “We present a list of major pesticide contributors for some specific cancers, but we highlight strongly that it is the combination of all of them and not just a single one that matters.”
Moreover, the researchers also found a positive association between pesticides and leukemia, bladder, colon, lung, and pancreatic cancer.
