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Re: Increased Prostate Cancers in Farmers
At 06:29 PM 6/3/96 -0400, Julie Elfving wrote:
>I caught an item on NPR Sunday in the weekly
>interview segment with two physicians that dealt with
>a re-examination of Agent Orange claims by Vietnam
>vets. The discussion turned to mention of a
>Canadian study of farmers using pesticides with
>Agent Orange-like properties. The more the use of
>these pesticides, the higher the incidences of
>prostate cancer and the more acres covered, an even
>higher incidence. They called it definitely a
>dose-response rather than direct causation. Can
>anyone report on this study? What were the
>pesticides involved -- I presume herbicides? what did
>the physicians mean by Agent-orange-like
>ingredients? If possible, could you post a response
>by Friday of this week? I will be unsubscribing on
>Monday for about three weeks...
>
>
Farmers do appear to have a relatively higher risk for prostate cancer as
well as cancers of the skin, brain, stomach, and lymphatic system. An
article published in the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY (137:3, 1993 Feb
1, pp. 270-280), concerns a study of Canadian wheat farmers which initially
found a weak but significant correlation between number of acres sprayed
with herbicide and prostate cancer risk. However, when the study focused on
those farmers with the least amount of misclassification re herbicide use,
the relation of acres sprayed to prostate cancer risk became much stronger,
being 2.23 times higher for those spraying 250 or more acres. The abstract
didn't list specific herbicides, but the mention of "Agent Orange-like"
herbicides in the NPR physicians' interview most likely refers to phenoxy
herbicides like 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T.
You can conduct a free MEDLINE search on Healthgate (http://www.healthgate.
com/) for more article abstracts relating farming to prostate cancer. By
entering "prostate cancer, pesticide" you'll access abstracts of 12 articles
relating farming to the risk of prostate and other cancers.
To add a broader perspective on prostate cancer re the public at large, here
are some facts:
According to the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, about 30% of men over 50
have tiny prostate tumors, a rate which is very similar throughout the world.
Nevertheless, the prostate cancer death rate in the U.S. and other developed
countries is much higher. Given that the U.S. non-farm public is likely to
have less direct exposure to pesticides than typical 3rd World populations
where pesticide usage is often uncontrolled, it seems that some special
environmental trigger (in addition to pesticide exposure) is at work.
Here's some of what research has found so far:
1. Fat from animal sources, especially red meat, increases the risk of
advanced prostate cancer by roughly 63% (Journal of the Nat. Cancer
Institute, 10/6/93)
2. In a further study (J. of the Nat. Cancer Instit., 2/16/94), researchers
implicated alpha linolenic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid found in both
meat and vegetable-seed oils. Men with high blood levels of this fat had
2-3 times greater prostate cancer risk. Those consuming red meat 5 times a
week had 2.5 times the risk of those eating it less than once a week.
3. Soy proteins in tofu, soy milk, and soy flour) seem to have a significant
protective effect.
4. Men who burn 4000 calories or more per week in vigorous exercise (about
an 45-60 minutes/day) have a 47-88% lower prostate cancer risk than those
burning less than 1000 calories a week (PREVENTION Magazine, August,'92).
5. Prostate cancer risk appears to be inversely correlated with vitamin D
intake from diet or sunlight.
6. Tomatoes are especially high in the carotenoid lycopene which appears to
be an effective risk reducer. A 5-year study (J. of the Nat. Cancer
Institute, 12/6/95) showed that men eating 10 servings (1/2 cup each) of
cooked tomato products had only 1/3 the prostate cancner risk of those
eating 1.5 servings.
David Leonard
Consultant in hillside-farming systems and agro-nutrtion
Tucson, AZ