Farmers’ Link to Cancers to Be Studied

Midwestern hospital workers will be playing detective over the next three years trying to discover why some cancers apparently kill farmers more than other people.

“Studies done at various places around the world really pretty consistently show higher rates for a small number of cancers” among farmers, said Dr. Aaron Blair, chief of the occupational studies section at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.

Studies in several states and in Great Britain, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia found higher rates among farmers for some generally rare cancers, even though farmers usually get most other cancers less and are healthier than other people, Blair said.

“The excess risk that farmers have for these other cancers is not huge” he said. But the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health is concerned enough to fund a cancer project in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin that began in February.

Along with preventive measures such as free cancer screenings, public education and training for rural doctors, the project will investigate why farmers have higher mortality rates for six cancers, particularly those of the blood and lymph systems.

“Are they being diagnosed at a later stage when the disease isn’t as curable or treatable?” asks Stephanie VanLier Pettit, the epidemiologist directing the Demonstration Cancer Control Project for Iowa Farmers. “We don’t know, but that’s what we’re going to find out.”

A 1980 study at the University of Iowa found that farmers die of lip cancer 2.06 times more than other people. Mortality rates among farmers also were elevated for stomach and prostate cancer, leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The latter three are cancers of the blood-forming tissues.

It is unknown why farmers show those higher mortality rates.

“It isn’t necessarily that they’re getting cancers more often,” VanLier Pettit said.

But she agreed that some researchers think exposure to pesticides while applying them to fields and from drinking contaminated ground water could harm some farmers.

NIOSH will spend $2.1 million to run the three-year project through 11 Iowa hospitals serving rural populations, and more money may be allocated later. Wisconsin and Michigan will get similar funding.

About 2,000 free cancer screenings are planned in Iowa, and researchers will interview 17 rural families in each of 35 counties to determine if limited health insurance or distance from hospitals could be delaying examinations or treatment.