Studies and Reports Archive

A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives this month finds that children born to mothers living in households with pesticide use during pregnancy have over twice as much risk of getting cancer, specifically acute leukemia (AL) or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The researchers conclude that the study findings strengthen the hypothesis that domestic use of pesticides may play a role in the etiology of childhood hematopoietic malignancies.

According to a study commissioned by Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Silent Spring Institute, 216 chemicals, many found in urban air and everyday consumer products, cause breast cancer in animal tests. The study, “Environmental Factors in Breast Cancer,” the most comprehensive review to date of scientific research on environmental factors that may increase breast cancer risk, was published in the online version of the American Cancer Society’s journal Cancer on May 14, 2007.

Breast cancer groups across the country have a new issue to add to the repertoire of risk factors: Pesticide use. A study published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology has found a strong link between residential pesticide use and breast cancer risk in women. Responding to the study, Susan Teitelbaum, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of community medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, says the options are simple— “Stop using pesticides.”

Citing an extensive body of literature illustrating the concern over related human and environmental health effects, recent commentary in Environmental Health Perspectives continues the call for improvements in pesticide regulation and “inert” ingredient disclosure. The authors, Caroline Cox, Ph.D., research director at the Center for Environmental Health, and Michael Surgan, Ph.D., chief scientist in the Office of the Attorney General of New York State, highlight the regulatory weaknesses that allow the “inert” ingredients in pesticide formulations to go largely untested.