Study links three pesticides to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Dutch researchers have published the results of a prospective study that they believe links the exposure of certain pesticides to the development of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).

The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, involved the collection of fat tissue samples from a large cohort of over 57,000 Danish men and women in their 50s and 60s between the years 1993 and 1997.

Since toxins tend to collect in fat tissue, those samples were analyzed for eight pesticides and ten polychlorinated biphenyl congeners (PCBs).

Researchers could find no association between PCB exposure and NHL.

However, they did find an association between the exposure of three pesticides and the development of NHL later in life:

- DDT
- cis-nonachlor
- Oxychlordane

The association was determined to be slightly stronger in men than in women, and there was no association found with body-mass index.

Although none of these pesticides are in use any longer in the United States, they remain in the environment.

Source

Bräuner EV et al. A prospective study of organochlorines in adipose tissue and risk of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Environ Health Perspect :-. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1103573