The health effects of pesticides on agricultural workers
A new systematic review finds a link between pesticide exposure and suicide.
Welcome to our new subscribers! Today’s newsletter summarizes two new studies for you.
In a review published on June 26 of this year in the journal Rural and Remote Health, Brazilian researchers looked at thirty-three studies of agricultural workers in sixteen countries. The review included longitudinal studies, retrospective analyses, cross-sectional studies, surveys, and case control studies.
Researchers found a strong link between high levels of occupational pesticide exposure and suicide. They posit that organophosphates can worsen mental health by diminishing acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme needed by the nervous system.
Speaking of pesticides, in March of this year, the International Journal of Molecular Sciences published a review of studies examining the link between environmental pollutants and the risk of childhood cancer. Researchers in Mexico City included 174 epidemiological studies published between 2013 and 2023.
The following two graphics depict the studies yielding positive associations. As you can see, positive associations were found between different forms of childhood cancers and air pollution, pesticides, indoor chemical exposure, prenatal tobacco, prenatal alcohol, and electromagnetic fields.
The following diagram, thanks to the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, illustrates the possible mechanism by which benzene could lead to leukemia.
In the final graphic, the International Journal of Molecular Sciences illustrates mechanisms of cancer induced by pesticides.
Many thanks to the researchers and study participants.
References
Barbosa Junior M, Ramos Huarachi DA, De Francisco AC.  The link between pesticide exposure and suicide in agricultural workers: a systematic review. Rural and Remote Health 2024; 24: 8190. https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH8190
Navarrete-Meneses MdP, Salas-LabadÃa C, Gómez-Chávez F, Pérez-Vera P. Environmental Pollution and Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Scoping Review of Evidence from the Last Decade. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2024; 25(6):3284. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25063284
More people should be talking about this! Most people know very little about chemistry and worse, they trust governments and corporations to look out for them. Chemical and big agricultural corporations are profiting from, essentially, poisoning the masses. Most people are totally ignorant to it and trust government agencies to protect them. Everyone needs to know that agencies like the FDA, chemical companies and food companies like the Quaker Oats Company, owned by the Pepsi Company, and others do not care about anything except profitability. ( https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cheerios-quaker-oats-infertility-chemicals-in-cereal-ewg/ ) They don't care about the workers in the fields nor the consumers. Federal agencies, like the FDA, have no vested interest in protecting the masses when they profit through user fees (and kickbacks and bribes no doubt). This is the kind of discussion that should be flooding social networking platforms instead of the stupid useless crap that gets people to rack up a dozen hours a week or more on their addictive phones. Thanks for posting about this! This is real and mass people are getting sick, living in states of reduced health, or dying so a few can profit. It is evil.