Guardian Unlimited: Burke: pesticides linked to birth defects:
some abstracts 9.24.00

www.guardianunlimited.co.uk
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000
Sunday Observer  Sunday September 24, 2000
Pesticides linked to birth defects
Special report: what's wrong with our food?
Jason Burke

Exposure to pesticides can cause birth defects and childhood cancers,
new research in America and Germany has found.

It claims that women exposed to agricultural pesticides
were more than twice as likely to have children
born without one or more limbs.

German researchers studied nearly 1,200 children with leukaemia,
200 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and
more than 900 with other forms of cancer.
They concluded that exposure to pesticides increased
chances of developing the disease by around half.
They also found that the use of insecticides in
the home more than doubled the chance of cancers in children under 15.

The use of pesticides on farms was linked to the occurrence
of childhood leukaemia with a 50 per cent increase
in diagnoses recorded.

Another study, conducted by researchers,
mainly from the University of Washington in Seattle, studied
4,500 children born to mothers who worked on farms and
found that they had a 2.6 times higher chance of a serious limb defect.

The findings follow a British Government report revealing that 43 per
cent of fruit and vegetables in shops show traces of pesticides - a
significant increase on last year.

David Buffin, of the Pesticide Action Network, said:
'This research underlines the need to seriously reduce pesticide use as
much and as soon as possible.'

Another study found that people regularly exposed to pesticides were
more prone to mild cognitive dysfunction (MCD),
particularly memory loss, in later life. Dutch researchers
found that 18 per cent of 838 people exposed to pesticides
developed MCD, compared with 5 per cent of the unexposed.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food says that only 1.6 per
cent of food tested actually shows traces that are above the legal
limits which they call 'ultra-cautious'.

But Sandra Bell, Real Food Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:
'Although [trace] levels of individual pesticides in food are usually
low, this is no guarantee of safety.' She said that a 'cocktail effect'
of different chemicals together was very worrying.
'We are exposed to a whole mixture of pesticides in our diet,
and some people will be more
vulnerable than others - especially babies and pregnant women.
The Government and retailers must do more to make sure
that the food we eat is free of toxic residues.'

Last week Professor Ian Shaw, chairman of the Government's pesticides
watchdog, said that parents should feed their children tinned baby food
rather than fresh vegetables if they wished to avoid pesticide residues.

Last night a ministry spokesperson said that it required data to prove
that any pesticide was safe to the user before authorising it.
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PANNA and CPR reveal that use of
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more than doubled during 1991 to 1998 and
that total pesticide use in 1998 is at the highest level ever reported.
Hooked on Poison: Pesticide Use in California  1991-1998 (Report)

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Am J Epidemiol 2000 Apr 1;151(7):639-46; discussion 647-50
Leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in childhood and exposure to
pesticides: results of a register-based case-control study in Germany.
Meinert R, Schuz J, Kaletsch U, Kaatsch P, Michaelis J
Institute of Medical Statistics and Documentation,
Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz,  Germany.
Institut fur Medizinische Statistik und Dokumentation
der Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz, Germany.
schuez@imsd.uni-mainz.de

Previous studies have suggested an association
between exposure to pesticides and different
types of childhood cancer. This paper presents
results from a population-based case-control
interview study of parents of children less than
15 years of age, which was conducted in the states
of West Germany from 1993 to 1997. Cases
were 1,184 children with leukemia, 234 with
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and 940 with a solid
tumor; 2,588 controls were also included.
Parental occupational exposures were found to
be related to childhood cancer regardless of the
time period of exposure and the type of cancer.
This finding might partially be explained by
different recall of past exposures by the parents
of cases and controls. Residential use of
insecticides was associated with childhood
lymphoma: both extermination of insects by
professional pest controllers
(odds ratio (OR) = 2.6, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2, 5.7) and
frequency of parental use of household insecticides
(p for trend = 0.02) were significant risk
factors for this diagnosis. The use of pesticides on
farms was weakly related to childhood
leukemia (OR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.0, 2.2), while their
use in gardens was not associated with
childhood leukemia (OR = 1.0, 95% CI: 0.8, 1.2).
The major strengths of this study were the
population base and the large number of cases and
controls included; a drawback was
assessment of exposure on the basis of parental
interviews. The data provide some evidence for
an increased leukemia risk for children living on
farms and for an association between use of
household pesticides and risk of childhood leukemia
or lymphoma.  PMID: 10752791, UI: 20214465

Neurotoxicology 2000 Aug;21(4):435-40
A meta-analysis of Parkinson's disease and exposure to pesticides.
Priyadarshi A, Khuder SA, Schaub EA, Shrivastava S
Department of Public Health, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, USA.

This study examined the association between
Parkinson's disease (PD) and exposure to
pesticides. A series of meta-analysis of peer-reviewed
studies were performed, using 19 studies
published between 1989 and 1999. Prior to the
meta-analysis, all studies were reviewed and
evaluated for heterogeneity and publication bias.
Significant heterogeneity among studies was
detected and combined odds ratio (OR) was
calculated using the random effect model. The
majority of the studies reported consistent elevation
in the risk of PD with exposure to pesticides.
The combined OR studies was 1.94 [95% confidence
interval (95% CI) 1.49-2.53] for all the
studies, and 2.15 (95% CI 1.14-4.05) for studies
performed in United States. Although the risk
of PD increased with increased duration of exposure
to pesticides, no significant dose-response
relation was established, and no specific type of
pesticide was identified. Our findings suggest that
exposure to pesticides may be a significant risk
factor for developing PD.  PMID: 11022853, UI: 20475690

Teratog Carcinog Mutagen 2000;20(5):265-72
Chromosomal aberrations analysis in a brazilian
population exposed to pesticides.
Antonucci GA, de Syllos Colus IM
Department of General Biology, CCB,
State University of Londrina, PR, Brazil.

In spite of being harmful, pesticides are widely
used in Brazil. Their genotoxic effects might be
studied through population monitoring by means
of the analysis of chromosomal aberrations in
occupationally exposed individuals. The aim of
this study was to evaluate the chromosomal
aberration frequencies in temporary cultures of
lymphocytes from periferic blood of 23 workers
professionally exposed to a mixture of pesticides.
The workers were employed by the Agronomic
Institute of Parana (Brazil) and used all of the
prevention measures provided. A detailed history of
pesticide use, as well as personal data, smoking habits,
and history of recent illnesses and medical
treatment were collected through a standardized
questionnaire administered to each subject.
Nonexposed subjects, matched for age, sex, and
smoking habits, served as the negative control.
A total of 100 cells were analyzed from each
individual. A significant increase in chromosomal
aberration frequencies was observed in exposed
individuals when compared to the control group.
Some individual characteristics such as age, sex,
time of exposure to the pesticides, and smoking
habits showed no correlation with chromosomal
aberrations. Therefore, the positive results may
be considered true effects of pesticides on human
somatic cells.  PMID: 10992273, UI: 20449336

Mutat Res 2000 Sep 20;469(2):279-85
Evaluation of DNA damage in workers occupationally exposed to
pesticides using single-cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) assay.
Pesticide genotoxicity revealed by comet assay.
Garaj-Vrhovac V, Zeljezic D
Mutagenesis Division, Institute for Medical Research and
Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia.

The comet assay, also called the single-cell gel
electrophoresis (SCGE) assay, is a rapid and
sensitive method for the detection of DNA damage
(strand breaks and alkali-labile sites) in
individual cells. The assay is based on the embedding
of cells in agarose, their lysis in alkaline
buffer and finally subjection to an electric current.
In the present study, alkaline SCGE was used
to evaluate the extent of primary DNA damage
and DNA repair in peripheral blood lymphocytes
of workers employed in pesticide production.
After the period of high pesticide exposure,
lymphocytes of the occupationally exposed workers
manifested increased tail length and tail
moment compared to the control group. After the
workers spent 6 months out of the pesticide
exposure zone, both endpoints were still above
that of the control but significantly decreased as
compared to the results of the first analysis.
PMID: 10984689, UI: 20442322

Curr Opin Oncol 2000 Sep;12(5):383-94
Epidemiology of lymphomas.
Baris D, Zahm SH
Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics,
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
20892, USA. barisd@exchange.nih.gov
Dalsu Baris 301-496-9093  db220a@nih.gov
Shelia H. Zahm  301-496-8157  sz11z@nih.gov

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is the fifth most
common cancer in the US, with about 55,000
new cases estimated for the year 2000. According
to the new Surveillance, Epidemiology, and
End Results (SEER) data from 1973 to 1997, the
age-adjusted incidence rates rose by about
80%, with an annual percentage increase of nearly 3%,
which is faster than for the majority of
cancers. The increasing incidence of NHL is largely
unexplained. AIDS-related NHL accounts
for some but not all of the increase. The American
Cancer Society predicts about 7,400 new
cases of Hodgkin Disease (HD) in the year 2000
in the US. The incidence of HD is consistently
lower than that of NHL, and has decreased about 16%
since the 1970s. Only a small portion of
the decrease in HD incidence can be explained by
misdiagnosis of HD as NHL. Further research
is needed on the cofactors that predispose AIDS
cases to lymphoma, as well as other possible
causes of NHL such as immunosuppression, genetics,
viruses, medical conditions, pesticides,
solvents, hair dyes, and diet. Further evaluation of
the role of viruses, occupational exposures,
and genetics in the etiology of HD should prove valuable.
PMID: 10975544, UI: 20427284
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