"New Study Advances Science Linking Pesticide Exposures To Cancer" [1]
"A new study of pesticide exposure in Peru finds a mechanistic association between exposure and cancer, and shows how “complex pesticide mixtures” can contribute to the development of cancer in people, even at exposure levels currently deemed safe.
The authors of the study, published in Nature Health, said the findings call into question classical toxicological approaches that are based on the evaluation of isolated substances and the setting of safety thresholds, and demonstrate the importance of looking at the impacts of multiple pesticide mixtures.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory agencies around the world typically evaluate pesticides individually and not in combination, a practice that has drawn criticism.
“We have long assumed that pesticide risks are assessed one at a time, but in reality people are constantly exposed to complex mixtures in their everyday environment — and our findings suggest this overlooked reality may be an important component of cancer risk,” said study co-author Stephane Bertani, who is research director in molecular biology at the French Institute for International Scientific Research (IRD)."