People who apply pesticides have double the normal risk of developing a pre-cancerous blood disorder called MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance).
People who apply pesticides have double the normal risk of developing a pre-cancerous blood disorder called MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance).
MGUS is characterised by an abnormal level of plasma protein. The disorder requires lifelong monitoring because it can lead to multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow.
Researchers from America studied 678 men, aged 30 to 94 years, who applied pesticides and compared them to more than 9,000 men from the general population to assess the risk of MGUS. Serum samples from all the subjects were analysed by electrophoresis. Associations between pesticide exposures and MGUS prevalence were assessed and adjusted for age and education level.
It was found that the risk of MGUS was 6 times higher for those who used an insecticide called dieldrin; 4 times higher for those who used the fumigant mixture carbon-tetrachloride/carbon disulfide and 2 times higher for those who used a fungicide called chlorothalonil.
No cases of MGUS were found among those younger than 50 in the pesticide-exposed group, but the rate of MGUS in those older than 50 was 7 percent, about 2 times higher than among the men in the general population group.
The findings support that virtually all multiple myeloma patients experience a MGUS state prior to developing myeloma and specific pesticides are causatively linked to myelomagenesis.
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