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Work exposure to weed killers tied to brain cancer
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 02 - 05 - 2008


Women whose jobs regularly
expose them to weed killers may have a higher-than-normal risk
of a particular form of brain cancer, results of a U.S. study
suggest, according to Reuters.
Researchers found that among more than 1,400 U.S. adults
with and without brain cancer, there was no overall link
between the disease and on-the-job exposure to pesticides or
herbicides -- chemicals used to kill plants, usually weeds.
However, a closer look at the data showed that women who
had ever been exposed to herbicides at work had a two-fold
higher risk of meningioma than women with no such exposure.
Meningiomas are slow-growing tumors that arise in the
tissue covering the brain and spinal cord. They are one of the
most common forms of brain tumor, and occur most frequently in
middle-aged women.
A few studies, but not all, have linked both farming and
heavy pesticide exposure to a higher risk of brain cancer.
For the current study, published in the American Journal of
Epidemiology, researchers looked not only at participants' job
titles, but also at their estimated exposure to pesticides and
herbicides.
They found that women exposed to herbicides had an elevated
meningioma risk, and the risk tended to climb as the women's
years of exposure increased. There was no link, however, been
pesticide or herbicide exposure and brain cancer in men.
Unlike other forms of brain cancer, meningiomas are more
common in women than men. The new findings suggest that
herbicides might play some role in this risk, according to the
investigators, led by Dr. Claudine M. Samanic of the National
Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
On the other hand, they write, the results are based on
only a small number of women. In all, 33 women with brain
cancer, and 71 without cancer, had ever been exposed to
herbicides at work.
"Our finding that women exposed to herbicides experienced
increased meningioma risk may be a chance finding, and our
results should be interpreted cautiously," Samanic and her
colleagues write.
Of the 17 women with the highest herbicide exposure, most
worked in restaurants or grocery stores, and were likely
exposed by routinely handling produce contaminated with
herbicides, the researchers note.
It's not clear why pesticide exposure was unrelated to
brain cancer in men or women. One possibility, the researchers
note, is that only certain pesticides are involved in brain
cancer risk, and they lacked information on which chemicals
their study participants had used on the job.
And again, the researchers point out, only a small number
of people had ever been exposed to pesticides at work, and the
lack of a link to brain cancer could also be a "chance"
finding.


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