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Re: Increased Prostate Cancers in Farmers



>Folks,
I seem to recall two links with Canada around ag/forestry chemicals.  One
involved a legal suit in the Maritime Provences a worker's group called
"Sprayers of Dioxin" (right-of-way-techs) that relied on Swedish data
showing a correlation between 2,4,D & simular compounds and certain
soft-tissue sarcomas.  Another was a tv documentary 3-4 yrs ago that cited
Canadian data seemingly associating ag chems with Parkinson's disease.  If
anyone has any specifics on the above, I'd appreciate being updated...
I also seem to recall an occupational health study from AT LEAST 10 years
ago by one of the mid-west (Iowa?) University medical schools/of public
health that teased out a pattern of cancers simular to that raised below by
David.  I've found an interesting and thought-provoking source of
information in this area to be the monthly Technical Report put out by the
National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, 701 E St. SE, Suite
200, Wash.D.C.20003/202-543-5450/ncamp@igc.apc.org

Bo Yerxa


Return-Path: <almanac-request@amani.ces.ncsu.edu>
>Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 10:10:50 -0700 (MST)
>X-Sender: davel@azstarnet.com
>To: sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu
>From: David Leonard <davel@AZStarNet.com>
>Subject: 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
>
>
Bo Yerxa, Executive Director
Cornell Cooperative Extension-Monroe County
249 Highland Avenue
Rochester, N.Y. 14620-3036
voice:  716.461.1000
fax:    716.442.7577
e-mail: byerxa@cce.cornell.edu
Opinions expressed above may or may not be my own, but are definitely NOT
those of my employer!!   ;-{o