Childhood Cancer Clusters in California’s Central Valley Case report :Sakshi Arora March 22, 2012 This case study examines childhood cancers in agricultural communities of Mc Farland and Earlimart from 1978 to 1995. According to the local residents of these communities the main reason for cancer is contamination through pesticide in the agricultural farms which is the major source of employment for the residents of the community. McFarland is a small community in Kern County, with the population of about 6200, located at the southern end of California’s San Joaquin Valley. They are the main source of cotton and Almond in the area. Census Data of 1980 revealed that 40 percent of the population is less than …show more content…
According to the residents, pesticides are the main cause of increasing number of child death rate in the area. Mcfarland and Earlimart are small communities who are not engaged in lot of activities. Victim’s parents have been examined and most of them reported it is caused by pesticides whereas some residents living have reported that no such incident has been observed in their families. Their main occupation is agriculture in the farms where pesticide is being used. They have reported contamination of water is also one of the reasons for the cancer. The case unfolds the number of cases which happened with the people throughout the period. They also reported that in spite of informing the harmful effect of the pesticides to their boss .To which no action has been taken instead their interference in such matter would a reason of them to be fired from the job. The figures of The California Department of Food and Agriculture revealed that there are more than 1,200 cases in California alone in 1986 based on worker compensation records. Nationwide, one estimate calculated as many as 313,000 pesticide-related illnesses among farm worker each year. Dr. Marion Moses, a San Francisco physician active with farm worker groups and a member of the pesticide advisory committee of the Environmental Protection Agency said the main reason for cancer deaths
The prevalence is up to 78 per cent higher than the rest of the state according to research. The area of the state where barley and pulses are produced is where abnormally high rates of cancer were found. This research by no means says that pesticides caused Parkinson's disease here, but further research is needed in order to find out what actually happened in these four areas. The cancer-cluster discussed in the book and Parkinson’s disease caused by pesticide overuse in the articles are relatively similar. In both cases, chemicals contaminated the water and food that were consumed by humans. Furthermore, further research into a potential link between chemicals and diseases is still needed in both cases. Moreover, It’s important not to mislead the public based on an untested correlation. Too many cases of making assumptions based on correlation have led to obscuring the real cause of
Some research studies show that these chemicals are also the cause of birth defects in children. With the increase in the use of these chemicals, there will be an increase in birth defects. According to research done by the University of California, pregnant mothers who live within a mile away from crops that are sprayed with pesticides are more likely to develop autism in their babies. If the use of pesticides continues to grow, one day the human race with completely diminish.
Not only does it affect our agriculture, but it affects our health and way of living. Overconsumption has a profound effect on greenhouse gas emissions, the impact of society’s high standards and wants has created new childhood morbidities and health issues. Chronic childhood diseases are linked to toxic chemical exposures produced my production companies. Steingraber explains how one in eight children are born prematurely, which is costing $26 billion per year in medical cost (par. 20). Preterm birth is linked to air pollution and particles produced by power plants. Preterm birth is not the only health issues linked with pollution, but neurodevelopmental disorder and asthma is also linked to air pollution. These health issues now appear almost normal or inevitable. The issue at hand is that we do not identify, nor do we amend the issue that is causing cancer and other health
It is also shown that pesticides are partly responsible for the rising cancer rates and birth defects among children (“Pesticides”).
The first topic is the Native Americans diet affecting the probability of cancer. The author’s theory is that the Native Americans eat grass fed meat and the “grass is very high in cancer fighting nitrilosides”. The Native Americans eat caribou and the caribou consumes a large amount of grass. “You are what you eat the biomass of the caribou is transferred to the inuit”. “Thus allowing” the Native Americans “to get these nutrients
According to the Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, over the past few years, pesticide use on fruits and vegetables has drastically risen, “per acre pesticide application rates increased by 125 percent over the past 25 years” The foods that cause the most children age 5 and under to exceed an unsafe daily dose of pesticides are apples, peaches and grapes. The FDA found “34 different pesticides on apples, 30 on grapes and, 28 on peaches” This means that the healthy foods that most children do eat are poisoned and do pose a threat to the well being of children. A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration found these chemicals in food consumed mainly by children, “methyl parathion, dimethoate, chlorpyrifos, pirimiphos methyl and azinphos methyl” All these pesticides are highly toxic and pose a bigger threat to children than to adult’s because the current pesticide laws are not adequate enough to protect children. One reason children are more vulnerable to pesticides is that they weigh less; a little bit of poison to an adult is proportionally more to a child. In a 1998 analysis of government data conducted by
Many economically important field crops in the United States depends on the labor of migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Over the past years the United States has had the largest population of immigrants. Of course many of these immigrants are from different places in the world; but the largest population is from Latin America. Over half of the immigrant population is from Latin America and almost 40% entered the US in the past decade (Pransky, 2002). Recently many of these immigrate live and work in the metropolitan area. The ages rang from 18 to 64. Considering the number of immigrants thriving the health status and needs of immigrants is important. This issue of immigrant farmworker is not being discussed in day to day basis. Many of these immigrants migrate for work but find themselves living in poverty, language barriers, working conditions, no health insurance and etc...Agriculture in the United States highly depends on chemicals like pesticide, growth regulator, and fertilizer. Every year 1 billion chemical is applied. Considering the amount of chemicals applied migrate are at a high risk of pesticide exposure since chemicals are in water, soil and plants. Pesticide exposure means getting pesticides in or on the body. This article will discuss four primary immigrates, reasons immigrate farm workers work mostly on fields, farm owner’s benefits, stress, pesticide explores, heavy machinery and treatments after being hurt. All of these terms will describe how they affects
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2013) defines cancer clusters as a larger than anticipated amount of similar cancer cases arising at a given time among members of a defined community. Cancer clusters present many challenges due to the complexity of the analytic process and the abundance of inquiries and concerns. Because the research and studies of cancer clusters in the United States have uncovered few conclusive determinants, many states are hesitant in dedicating excess resources and money to the meticulous processes. Seeing the issue of discovering potential environmental hazards as a priority, Maryland is employing a specifically appointed workgroup to process all community concerns to enforce serious
Pesticides: What are they? Pesticides are chemicals that are used to destroy pests. In the agricultural industry, pesticides are classified into two categories, carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic. A carcinogenic pesticide is a substance or agent producing or inciting cancer. Conversely, a non-carcinogenic pesticide is substance that does not produce or incite cancer. Most agricultural pesticides were registered in the 1950's, with no standard regulations. The most considerable standard prior to the amendments of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) was, if a revocation of a pesticide occurred, would it have an impact on the prices or availability of food to the consumer? Consumer concerns with the usage of pesticides in the
Participants were asked if they were currently and regularly exposed to certain acids, solvents, coal, stone, dust, asbestos, and chemicals. They were deemed farmers if their job coded according to the US Census of 1980 as “farmer”. These individuals were then categorized by duration of their self-reported exposure. Out of the 7,864 participants there were 1,956 people were deemed as farmers, fishermen, and ranchers. One similarity among those exposed in this particular study was that those exposed had lower educational levels than those who were not. [13]. Also, both men and women who were exposed had a 14% higher rate of being a “farmer”.
Different studies have used different methods in exploring this phenomenon. One of the articles (HHS Public Access) has explored the underlying effects by using past data, which comprised twelve studies with ALL and ten with AML cases. According to the American Association for Cancer Research article (Cancer Epidemiology), used details of German case-control have been published. The articles were pooled for analysis. Environmental Health Perspective article used all published literature that explored parental occupation and common childhood cancer in humans. Occupational exposures were obtained from job titles on birth certificates and some through interviews. Results for certain occupation-cancer association were tabulated in cases where more than one condition was attained. The use of recommended exhaust ventilation is vital in removing the contaminants produced by any activity to maintain a healthy work setting. The paper presented the successful design and construction of numerous exhaust ventilation models in a paint manufacturing factory. Various samples were taken from the breathing zone of workers who are exposed to paint environment. Occupational safety together with Health Administration analytical method was used to analyze the samples. In the article “Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine,” genotoxicity has been evaluated using the alkaline Comet assay in oral mucosa cells and blood lymphocytes as well as the Micronucleus
(Trewavas, 2001, p.409). This evidence shows that the use of the synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, is beneficial from a food safety point of view, as they decrease the possibility of getting ill from the consumption of this food. Therefore, conventionally grown food is safer than organically grown food, which does not use these chemicals.
The pesticides residues were found, only in 2005, in 485 monitoring sites (47% of the total sites) and the levels of pesticides were above the limits for drinking water in 27.9% of sites, About underground waters, 630 monitoring sites were contaminated and were 24.8% of the total, with 7.7% of cases above the limits for drinking water.In addition, intensive farming tends to deplete the soil of its mineral content and against this, it uses artificial fertilizers containing phosphorus and nitrogen.Also this is pollution because the soil is exploited too much and changes its features.To remedy against a situation like this, the only solution is a definitive and massive conversion of all cultures to organic farming. This is not a
A study was conducted, it was found that the presence of pesticides was successfully identified having an association in maternal, fetal and non pregnant women’s blood as a result of
This year more than 559,000 Americans will die of cancer, and another 1,445,000 new cases will be detected. (Kushi, Jack 3) According to the American National Cancer Society, facts and figures from 2017 has linked that sixty years ago the rate of people who would get cancer in their lifetime was one of eight, however, today it has risen to one in two men and one in three women. Several studies indicate processed foods are a leading contributor to the rising cancer rates because of artificial ingredients, GMOs, and how human process these foods.