Men exposed to pesticides on the job stood a 13-percent increased risk of getting prostate cancer. Men who worked as pesticide sprayers appeared to be at higher risk than farmers or those in other occupations involving the use of pesticides.
The study involved 22 epidemiological studies published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal between 1995 and 2001. Data from all the studies were pooled to come up with an overall risk associated with occupational exposure to pesticides.
The investigators believe these results confirm the results found by other researchers who pooled results from earlier studies on pesticide exposure and prostate cancer in farmers. But they also caution against over-interpretation of the findings, noting most of the 22 studies contained in the analysis did not take other factors that could have impacted prostate cancer risk into account, such as race and genetic factors.