Originally published in the United States: February 16, 2025
According to a new study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center, high exposure to various pesticides can cause childhood and youth cancer, especially the brain and central nervous system (CNS) tumors.
Nebraska, an agricultural country, has the highest percentage of children’s cancer in the United States after adjusting other factors, and researchers have found that an increase of 10% of pesticide mixtures is associated with significant increase in certain pediatric cancer.
- Brain and other CNS childhood cancer increased 36%.
- The leukemia rate for children and adolescents increased by 23%.
- The overall pediatric cancer rate has increased by 30%.
Previous studies focused on the effects of individual chemicals such as artazine or nitrate and a limited number of cancer types. This study is the first study to estimate the combined effects of various pesticides (how to more accurately reflect the actual agricultural exposure) for 11 types of pediatric cancer in 22 years, researchers said.
“Our consequences show the importance of evaluating chemical mixtures while studying pediatric cancer risks.1
This results are particularly increasing evidence that in agricultural areas, concerns about the impact of long -term health of pesticides and contributing to childhood cancers, including retinal cancer.2 (Retinal aceticular species).
Early pesticides are related to cognitive functions, adverse birth results and behavioral problems.
Children are particularly vulnerable to pesticide health risks
According to the National Cancer Institute, the cancer of children and adolescents is rare, but it is the main cause of death caused by infant diseases among American children.3
Pesticides spread through air, water and soil, and research can increase the risk of cancer by interfering with hormones, damaging DNA and causing inflammation. The American Pediatrics Academy (AAP) says children are unique in pesticides.4 It occurs every day due to developmental institutions. Young children can also contain insecticides, and they are more dangerous than adults because they are crawled or playing in the area where they are in their mouths.
In this study, researchers used data on 2,512 cancer cases among children aged 0-19 years between 1992 and 2014, and investigated 32 different pesticides. Those who appear to play the most important role in child cancer development are herbicides, glyphosate and paraquat.5 They found. The three other insecticides of Quizalofop, Triasulfuron and Tefluthrin have a strong association.
The researchers also attempted another statistical approach to some rare cancers to see if the pattern appeared. This method shows that the higher the pesticide exposure, the more related to the increase in lymphoma and bone cancer, but more research is needed.
The limitations of this study included demographic statistics (more than 90% of the number of research populations) and lower types of pediatric cancer with too few pediatric cancer hypersons, researchers said. Cancer data could only be used until 2015, so we could not analyze more recent trends. In addition, the study lacked individual exposure data and county pesticide data could include incorrectly classified exposure, researchers pointed out.
They say that future studies should include human biomonitoring studies (especially the level of pesticide levels of children’s blood, plasma and urine) to better understand how these chemicals affect their health.
“We expect these results to strengthen the efforts of the public health departments, government agencies and other related pediatric cancer stakeholders, and to improve efforts to design and implement cancer control programs and arbitration in agricultural dominant states, including Nebraska.”
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