Photo credit: Greenflames09

A recent study published in Environmental Health Perspectives has confirmed that on the job exposure to certain pesticides and herbicides is associated with lung cancer later in life. This study was conducted using data collected from the Agricultural Health Study, which includes long-term data on the health of 57,310 agricultural workers from North Carolina and Iowa. Researchers examined the relationship between exposure to 43 different types of pesticides and 654 lung cancer cases in pesticide applicators compared to other agricultural workers in the study without lung cancer to determine the association between exposure and lung cancer risk. Results indicated that high-level exposures to the pesticides pendimethalin, dieldrin, and parathion as well as the herbicide chlorimuron-ethyl were associated with lung cancer incidence.