A Perspective Discussion on Rising Pesticide Levels and Colon Cancer Burden in Brazil

Abstract

Agriculture is a mainstay of many developing countries’ economy, such as Brazil. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Brazil is the major global consumer of pesticides. Irrespective of the fact that the International Agency for Research on Cancer suggests that pesticides promote human cancer risk, a prospective study reports that colorectal cancer (CRC) burden will increase in developing countries by approximately 60% in the coming decades. Here, we review the literature and public data from the Brazilian Federal Government to explore why pesticides levels and new cases of colon cancer (CC) are rising rapidly in the country. CC incidence is the second most common malignancy in men and women in the South and the Southeast of Brazil. However, while these regions have almost doubled their pesticide levels and CC mortality in 14 years, the amount of sold pesticides increased 5.2-fold with a corresponding 6.2-fold increase in CC mortality in Northern and Northeastern states. Interestingly, mortality from endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases are rapidly increasing, in close resemblance with the pesticide detection levels in food. Taken together, we discuss the possibility that pesticides might alter the risk of CC.

Indirect Effects of the Herbicide Glyphosate on Plant, Animal and Human Health Through its Effects on Microbial Communities

“…In ecological epidemiological studies the increased use of glyphosate has been followed by an increase in a wide variety of human diseases, including various forms of cancer, sometimes at a lag of several years (Swanson at al. 2014;Uyemura et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2019). It should be emphasized that this does not imply a causal relationship (Mesnage and Antoniou, 2017).…”

“…Nevertheless, a link has been suggested between pesticide use (with glyphosate as major component) and colon-and colorectal cancer (Uyemura et al, 2017). Intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer are correlated with an overrepresentation of Proteobacteria including E. coli in the intestinal microbiome (Yang and Jobin, 2014).…”

Sub-Saharan Africa total diet study in Benin, Cameroon, Mali and Nigeria: Pesticides occurrence in foods

“…In this study, we aimed to generate mean contamination data, adequately reflecting the chronic exposure to pesticides from a typical diet, in specific areas. Consequences of chronic exposure to pesticides may include metabolic disorders, such as diabetes (Montgomery et al, 2008, Starling et al, 2014), reproductive disruption (Merviel et al, 2017, Ueker et al, 2016), genotoxicity (Eastmond & Balakrishnan, 2010) carcinogenesis (Engel et al, 2017, Uyemura et al, 2017), neurological (Muñoz-Quezada et al, 2016, Schmidt et al, 2017, Shelton et al, 2014, Wagner-Schuman et al, 2015) and sensory disorders (Sturza et al, 2016).…”

Pesticides as risk factors for head and neck cancer: A review

“…Considering that in developing countries, agricultural activities play a vital role in the economy and the use of pesticides is extensive, studies performed in these regions could reveal interesting and alarming results. Recently, Uyemura et al stated that Brazil had become the leading importer, with 1132‐fold more pesticides in 2014 than in 1984. Also, the amount of pesticides sold increased from 162 462 to 508 557 ton in the last 16 years.…”