New Study on Links to Pesticide Use and Increased Prostate Cancer Risk

A November 2024 article, an environment‐wide association study, looked at 295 pesticides that were used in 3,107 U.S. counties and compared that to the prostate cancer incidence and deaths in those counties. They knew approximately how much pesticide was used due to agricultural reporting requirements in the National Water‐Quality Assessment Project. The years 1997–2001 and 2002–2006 were used in the study and the prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates were followed in the individual counties for 10-18 years.
The authors reported that twenty-two of the pesticides were positively correlated with prostate cancer. The term pesticide includes herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. Four pesticides were positively associated with the incidence of prostate cancer mortality.
They used a complicated measurement of a 1‐standard‐deviation increase in log‐transformed pesticide use (kilograms of pesticide used per county) correlated to prostate cancer and mortality incidence increases per 100,000 people. The highest rate of prostate cancer increase found was 7.11 cases per 100,000 people for every standard deviation increase in the use of the fungicide propiconazole.
Limitations of the study include that data from people captured in one county’s geographic area may have moved there from another location during the time frame used in the study. There may also be other variables not accounted for that potentially could affect the results. As with any correlation/association study, correlation of two variables does not necessarily indicate causation of one by the other.
Comments:
This study documents the potentially negative effects of pesticides used in agriculture, in this case an increase in prostate cancer and mortality. Herbicides constituted about 50% of the twenty-two substances found to have a correlation to prostate cancer. Four of the pesticides were found to have a correlation to prostate cancer deaths.
In this study glyphosate (GLY) was found to potentially increase the incidence of prostate cancer by 3.67 cases per 100,000 people for every standard deviation increase in its use. In another study from 2024, glyphosate, the active component of glyphosate-based herbicides which are some of the most commonly used herbicides in the world, was tested for in men being treated in a French infertility clinic. It was reported that 56% of the subjects tested positive for glyphosate and the levels in semen were four times that found in blood. Finding glyphosate in semen suggests it may also be deposited in the prostate gland. The researchers found markers of increased oxidative stress in both blood and semen in subjects who had elevated GLY levels compared to controls. Oxidative stress results from the accumulation of reactive oxygen species, such as oxygen free radicals, which can cause cellular damage to tissues. Oxidative stress, in other research, has been implicated in the development of some cancers.
The use of pesticides has allowed increased agricultural production to help feed an ever-increasing world population. However, their use does appear to potentially have some negative health consequences, especially for agricultural workers.
References
Soerensen SJC et al. Pesticides and prostate cancer incidence and mortality: an environment-wide association study. Cancer. 2024; 1-9. Retrieved from: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cncr.35572
Vasseur C, Serra L, El Balkhi S, et al. Glyphosate presence in human sperm: First report and positive correlation with oxidative stress in an infertile French population. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. Published online May 1, 2024. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014765132400486X?via%3Dihub
Chang VC, Andreotti G, Ospina M, et al. Glyphosate exposure and urinary oxidative stress biomarkers in the Agricultural Health Study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2023;115(4):394-404. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10086635/
Kubsad, D., Nilsson, E.E., King, S.E. et al. Assessment of Glyphosate Induced Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance of Pathologies and Sperm Epimutations: Generational Toxicology. Sci Rep 9, 6372 (2019). Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42860-0#citeas
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