Pesticides sprayed on farmland are a major cause of thyroid cancer.
Ten pesticides—including paraquat, glyphosate, better known as RoundUp, and oxyfluorfen—are responsible for the cancer.
Researchers from the University of California’s Los Angeles Health Sciences reviewed 29 widely used pesticides to discover if they were responsible for the exponential increase in thyroid cancer cases across the US in the last 30 years. Of those, 19 caused DNA damage and ten caused thyroid cancer.
Cases of the cancer have been highest in California, which is also the most intensively farmed state, responsible for 25 percent of all pesticide use in the US.
Thyroid cancer cases in the US have been rising by 3 percent every year for the past 30 years. Cases are most prevalent among those who have been exposed to pesticides for at least 20 years.
The researchers analysed the level of pesticide exposure among a group of 2067 thyroid cancer cases and 1003 healthy controls. They had been living in California for at least five years.
The researchers say their research is one of the first studies to link thyroid cancer to pesticides. The rise in cases had been assumed to be a reflection of improved screening, while other studies had blamed lifestyle or genetic influences.
People working in the leather, wood and paper industries are more likely to develop the cancer, and people exposed to solvents and flame retardants are also at a higher risk.
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2022; 107: e3574
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