A study confirms relationship Pollution and Cancer

The most harmful are found in pesticides used on crops and plastics. Particularly affect children, teenagers and babies: their development may be affected even from the womb and during breast-feeding (breast milk carries pollutants), so it may be born with a tendency to unusual development of cancer during their life.

The pollutants are more dangerous to our health and cause more cancer than what we had been believing, this is revealed by a survey conducted by the University of Liverpool in Britain and the results published in The Journal of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine.

As explained a release from the University of Liverpool, previous studies about the causes of development of this disease have often concluded that exposure to certain types of pollutants, found in pesticides used on crops and in plastics, did not have a sufficient concentration to become a leading cause of cancer.

However, new research suggests that even at low concentrations, these chemicals do increase the risk of developing cancer, especially in children and young people. And it warns of the special risks to infants: its development may be affected by contaminants even from the womb and during breast-feeding (breast milk leads), so it may be born with an unusual tendency to cancer development along of the life.

Reviewing what is known

The investigation consisted of a systematic review of recent studies and literature about the relationship between cancer and the environment. Professors Vyvyan Howard and John A. Newby, the department of human anatomy and cell biology from the university, discovered that the quality of the environment actually affects our health, and also an inclination to cancer of genetics combined with a contaminated environment increases risk.

According to the researchers, these are pollutants that do not disappear and that travel long distances, accumulating in the food chain. Humans are exposed to them through food. The children take the dioxin through what they eat, and the fetus through the placenta and umbilical cord of their mothers, as well as breast milk. They are most vulnerable to contamination. Also, we are exposed to pollutants, which have properties that damage the endocrine system, through the air and water.

Natural Life

Scientists say that the contaminants, and especially synthetic pesticides, can also damage the hormone system, and could be a major cause of the occurrence of breast, testicular and prostate cancer. Therefore, they warn of the need to protect against them.

Cancer has little impact on non-industrialized societies, which still live in contact with nature, which suggests that obviously there is a link between the disease and the type of life resulting from industrialization. Therefore, experts advise opting for organic products as a method of prevention, and authorities continually should review the level of contaminants in the food consumed by the population.

These are a set of pesticides that are present in our environment and can accumulate in the body if we consume food contaminated with them. To avoid them, in addition to consuming organic products, people should wash the vegetables well, and even peeling.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between one and five per cent of the most serious diseases in developed countries are due to environmental factors. For Newby and Vyvyan, this estimate falls short.

It is not the first warning of the dangers of pollutants to human health, especially its relationship to cancer cases. The journal Cancer Research published last December, the results of another study with new evidence that environmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, in English) can be associated with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

For the authors of this study, it is increasingly clear that the persistent pollutants may be associated with risk of lymphoma, which is confirmed by the University of Liverpool.

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

Loading...

About the author