Notes rise in pesticide use with soy expansion; timely mitigation mitigated link between expansion and cancer incidences
Soybeans in the pod in Brazil. Photo: iStock A new study has found links between an increase in soy production in Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado biomes and an increase in paediatric deaths from cancer. Soy production in these biomes has increased up to 20 times in the last two decades and the associated pesticide use has also risen dramatically.
The researchers found a statistically significant correlation between a rise in soy production and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) deaths in children between 2008 and 2019. Timely access to treatment, however, mitigated this link.
The study, conducted by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in collaboration with the University of Denver and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, used 15 years of disease mortality data to estimate the relationship between increased soy production and related community pesticide exposure on childhood cancer incidence.
The pesticide exposure likely occurred through water supply penetration, the paper suggested.
A 10 percentage point increase in soy plantation area was found to be associated with an additional 0.40 deaths from ALL in children under the age of five per 10,000 population, the study found. There were an additional 0.21 deaths for children under 10 per 10,000 population.
In other words, a 10 percentage point increase in municipal area for soy farming increased the likelihood of a single child under the age of five dying from ALL by 1.3 per cent. For children under 10, the likelihood increased by 1.6 percent. Out of a total of 226 reported deaths from ALL from 2009-2019, 123 children under 10 died from ALL associated with pesticide exposure in the same period, the paper said.
Previous research has identified the effects of prenatal pesticide exposure on foetal development and adverse birth outcomes. However, the new one found evidence of this relationship beyond foetal development and into infancy and childhood.
The research showed a strong and persistent relationship between the arrival of high-intensity agriculture in the region and adverse human health outcomes. On the other hand, it added, access to high-quality healthcare systems could lessen these links. ALL is a highly treatable cancer conditional on timely and high-quality care and access to a paediatric oncology centre within a daily drive (100 kilometres) mitigated significant increases in fatal outcomes.
The study is only the tip of the iceberg, according to the researchers. The results did not account for the nonfatal health implications of environmental pesticide exposure, including cases of ALL that are successfully treated, other forms of cancer, and noncancerous diseases that result from pesticide exposure.
The area of soy in the Cerrado tripled from 5 million hectares in 2000 to 15 million hectares in 2019. While in the Amazon, the increase was 20-fold, as soy increased from 0.25 million to 5 million hectares. Pesticide use in biomes also increased 3-10 times.
As one of the world’s largest importers of agrochemicals and exporters of agricultural goods, Brazil sets a record for pesticide consumption, according to Pesticide Atlas 2022. A significant part of the pesticides used there are produced in the European Union and are highly hazardous.
The results backed policies to tighten rules on pesticides, especially in places where food production is getting bigger. They also called for more public health attention to be paid to pesticide exposure in the general community.
“When changes happen fast, there are risks associated with that and this is not isolated to Brazil. There is a lot of focus on agricultural intensification for global food security around the world. We need to find a balance where we get the productive benefits while mitigating any potential risks,” said Marin Elisabeth Skidmore, the lead author of the study.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), October 30, 2023.
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