Agriculture Job is Top 1 Most Likely to Make You Sick

Agriculture, pesticides exposure, and health issues

farmer image
In 1993, scientists from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began a study known as the Agricultural Health Study (AHS)

” Although farmers tend to have lower death rates due to heart disease and cancers of the lung, esophagus, bladder, and colon—likely thanks to lower smoking rates and a physically active lifestyle—they have an exceptionally high risk of other conditions, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Among them: leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, soft tissue sarcoma, and cancers of the skin, lip, stomach, brain, and prostate.

Why? Farmers are exposed to a wide range of hazardous chemicals including pesticides, engine exhaust, fertilizers, fungicide, and fuels, as well as animal viruses and dust. ”

To find out what other jobs are destroying your health, read The 5 Jobs Most Likely to Make You Sick, MensHealth, Feb. 17, 2014

More Agriculture Studies – NCBI
  • Atrazine and cancer incidence among pesticide applicators in the agricultural health study (1994-2007), PubMed 21622085, Sep 2011.
  • An update of cancer incidence in the Agricultural Health Study, PubMed 21063187, Nov 2010.
  • Pesticide exposure and risk of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance in the Agricultural Health Study, PubMed 19387005, Jun 2009.
  • Heterocyclic aromatic amine pesticide use and human cancer risk: results from the U.S. Agricultural Health Study, PubMed 19058219, Mar 2009.

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