Pesticides Linked to Precancerous Blood Disorder

Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 December 2009 01:59 Wednesday, 09 December 2009 01:53

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Individuals who apply pesticides to crops are twice as likely as the general population to develop a precancerous blood disorder called MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance), which can lead to multiple myeloma, according to the results of a study published in Blood.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the blood that affects the plasma cells, which are an important part of the immune system that produce antibodies to help fight infection and disease. Multiple myeloma is characterized by an excess production of abnormal plasma cells. Symptoms include increased risk of bacterial infections and impaired immune responses. Almost all patients with multiple myeloma experience the plasma disorder MGUS before developing myeloma.

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Previous studies have indicated that pesticides may be associated with an increased risk of multiple myeloma. This more recent study included a cohort of 678 men ages 30-94 from the Agricultural Health Study (which included over 57,000 subjects). The men work as pesticide applicators in North Carolina and Iowa and were enrolled in the study between 1993 and 1997. They provided blood samples that were analyzed for MGUS and then compared with samples from 9,469 men from the general population in Minnesota.

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