Effects of pesticides on the body are comparable to effects of smoking

It has been proven that pesticides, the herbicides actively used in agriculture, are no less dangerous for the human body than smoking. US scientists compared the effect of these two factors on the risk of cancer, writes Naked Science.

Pesticides are substances that kill pests and plant pathogens, as well as parasites, grain and wood pests, and carriers of diseases dangerous to humans and animals. Herbicides, which are classified as pesticides, kill weeds, insecticides kill harmful insects, fungicides kill pathogenic fungi, and zoocides kill harmful warm-blooded animals. In addition to toxic substances, this group of chemicals includes sterilizing agents that cause infertility and growth inhibitors that block the development of harmful organisms.

In modern agriculture, pesticides help to ensure sufficiently high yields and food security. However, they can affect not only the "target," which they kill or deprive of vital functions, but also other plants, animals, and people. In recent years, the number of people whose health is affected by pesticides has increased.

Researchers at several US medical schools studied how pesticides affect cancer risk and compared the results to the damage caused by smoking. The respective scientific article was published by Frontiers in Cancer Control and Society.

Scientists have discovered that the increased risk of some types of cancer due to agricultural pesticides is comparable to the risk of smoking. It was found that the Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma—a group of blood malignancies that includes all types of lymphoma except Hodgkin's lymphoma—, white blood cells, and bladder cancer have been found to be even more likely among those exposed to pesticides than among smokers.

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