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Pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of Kashmir

BACKGROUND: The atmosphere of valley of Kashmir is ideal for fresh and dry fruit production. Millions of tons of pesticides, insecticides and fungicides (chemicals like chlorpyriphos, mancozeb, captan, dimethoate, phosalone, etc.) are being used by the orchard farmers to spray the plants, fruits and...

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Autores principales: Bhat, Abdul Rashid, Wani, Muhammed Afzal, Kirmani, A. R., Raina, T. H.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Medknow Publications 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3089918/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21584215
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0971-5851.76191
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author Bhat, Abdul Rashid
Wani, Muhammed Afzal
Kirmani, A. R.
Raina, T. H.
author_facet Bhat, Abdul Rashid
Wani, Muhammed Afzal
Kirmani, A. R.
Raina, T. H.
author_sort Bhat, Abdul Rashid
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The atmosphere of valley of Kashmir is ideal for fresh and dry fruit production. Millions of tons of pesticides, insecticides and fungicides (chemicals like chlorpyriphos, mancozeb, captan, dimethoate, phosalone, etc.) are being used by the orchard farmers to spray the plants, fruits and the leaves every year. The increasing trend in the incidence of primary malignant brain tumors in orchard farmers of Kashmir is alarming. AIM: To determine the relationship between the patients of primary malignant brain tumors and their occupation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospectively case files along with death certificates of 432 patients of primary malignant brain tumors and 457 controls (non-tumor neurologic diseases), admitted for treatment simultaneously over a period of 4 years from January 2005 to December 2008, to the Department of Neurosurgery, Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Kashmir, were studied. Follow-up and family contact was established. The serum cholinesterase activity was measured by kinetic/DGKC calorimetric method and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) samples were sent to the laboratory. The results are expressed in U/l which is U/l×1000. The laboratory at SKIMS, Srinagar, and Dr Lal PathLabs at New Delhi used a reference range for serum cholinesterase as 3167–6333 U/l. RESULTS: Analysis revealed that 90.04% (389 out of 432) patients were orchard-farm workers, orchard residents and orchard playing children exposed to the high levels of multiple types of neurotoxic and carcinogenic (chlorpyriphos, dimethoate, mancozeb and captan) chemicals for more than 10–20 years. About 31.9% (124 out of 389) of these from both sexes were younger than 40 years beginning exposure at an early age and had higher (<6334 U/l) serum cholinesterase (SCE) levels. The 9.96% (43 out of 432) patients were not exposed to pesticides. On the other hand, only 119 patients out of 457 controls had recorded history of pesticide exposure and 338 were unrelated to pesticides. Out of 389 patients, 71.7% (279 out of 389) were males and 28.3% (110 out of 389) including 7 members of three families, 6 were females and 1 male. CONCLUSION: All orchard-related 389 patients had high grade tumors as compared to the non-pesticide tumors. Mortality in pesticide exposed tumors was 12%. Higher levels of SCE were found in 31.9% (124 out of 389) patients and decreased levels in only 45.3% (176 out of 389) orchard-related patients. The significantcase/control odds ratio (OR) of 0.28, hospital control SCE OR of 1.1 and family control SCE OR of 1.5, points the finger of suspicion toward the link between pesticides and brain cancer.
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spelling pubmed-30899182011-05-16 Pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of Kashmir Bhat, Abdul Rashid Wani, Muhammed Afzal Kirmani, A. R. Raina, T. H. Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol Original Article BACKGROUND: The atmosphere of valley of Kashmir is ideal for fresh and dry fruit production. Millions of tons of pesticides, insecticides and fungicides (chemicals like chlorpyriphos, mancozeb, captan, dimethoate, phosalone, etc.) are being used by the orchard farmers to spray the plants, fruits and the leaves every year. The increasing trend in the incidence of primary malignant brain tumors in orchard farmers of Kashmir is alarming. AIM: To determine the relationship between the patients of primary malignant brain tumors and their occupation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospectively case files along with death certificates of 432 patients of primary malignant brain tumors and 457 controls (non-tumor neurologic diseases), admitted for treatment simultaneously over a period of 4 years from January 2005 to December 2008, to the Department of Neurosurgery, Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Kashmir, were studied. Follow-up and family contact was established. The serum cholinesterase activity was measured by kinetic/DGKC calorimetric method and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) samples were sent to the laboratory. The results are expressed in U/l which is U/l×1000. The laboratory at SKIMS, Srinagar, and Dr Lal PathLabs at New Delhi used a reference range for serum cholinesterase as 3167–6333 U/l. RESULTS: Analysis revealed that 90.04% (389 out of 432) patients were orchard-farm workers, orchard residents and orchard playing children exposed to the high levels of multiple types of neurotoxic and carcinogenic (chlorpyriphos, dimethoate, mancozeb and captan) chemicals for more than 10–20 years. About 31.9% (124 out of 389) of these from both sexes were younger than 40 years beginning exposure at an early age and had higher (<6334 U/l) serum cholinesterase (SCE) levels. The 9.96% (43 out of 432) patients were not exposed to pesticides. On the other hand, only 119 patients out of 457 controls had recorded history of pesticide exposure and 338 were unrelated to pesticides. Out of 389 patients, 71.7% (279 out of 389) were males and 28.3% (110 out of 389) including 7 members of three families, 6 were females and 1 male. CONCLUSION: All orchard-related 389 patients had high grade tumors as compared to the non-pesticide tumors. Mortality in pesticide exposed tumors was 12%. Higher levels of SCE were found in 31.9% (124 out of 389) patients and decreased levels in only 45.3% (176 out of 389) orchard-related patients. The significantcase/control odds ratio (OR) of 0.28, hospital control SCE OR of 1.1 and family control SCE OR of 1.5, points the finger of suspicion toward the link between pesticides and brain cancer. Medknow Publications 2010 /pmc/articles/PMC3089918/ /pubmed/21584215 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0971-5851.76191 Text en © Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Bhat, Abdul Rashid
Wani, Muhammed Afzal
Kirmani, A. R.
Raina, T. H.
Pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of Kashmir
title Pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of Kashmir
title_full Pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of Kashmir
title_fullStr Pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of Kashmir
title_full_unstemmed Pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of Kashmir
title_short Pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of Kashmir
title_sort pesticides and brain cancer linked in orchard farmers of kashmir
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3089918/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21584215
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0971-5851.76191
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