Comment on: Cancer Division Accused Of Hiding Dangers Of Cosmetic Pesticides
Click Here to Add CommentSubject: Comment on: Cancer Division Accused Of Hiding Dangers Of Cosmetic Pesticides
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 13:53:45 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read an e-mail comment I just received:
Dear Steve, Incredible. I wonder if these people know the following:
"We find the strongest association between leukemia [in children] and the use by either parent of household pesticides (OR = 3.8, P = 0.004). The OR remains elevated after adjusting for all of the fathers' significant occupational exposures (OR = 4.0, P = 0.004) and for home use of garden sprays (OR = 2.4, P = 0.06) or incense (OR = 3.2, P = 0.01). The risk associated with either parent using garden sprays (pesticides and herbicides) also remains elevated after adjusting for all of the fathers' significant occupational exposures (OR = 5.6, P = 0.01) and use by either parent of household pesticides (OR = 4.1, P = 0.04) or incense (OR = 6.0, P = 0.01)."
In plain language, OR is the increased risk of children getting leukemia if their parents use pesticides or herbicides in the home or garden, compared with children whose parents don't use pesticides. The P numbers are the probabilities that these increased risks might be caused by something other than pesticides. If OR = 3.8 and P = 0.004, that means pesticides increase the risk of leukemia 3.8 times, and there is only a 0.4 per cent chance that this increase might be caused by something else (that's a one in 250 chance). Obviously almost all the P numbers are very low.
Two things impress me about this research.
First, how high all these increased risks are. Many people get concerned about something that increases their risks of cancer by 25 or 50 per cent. If OR = 3.8, that means pesticides increase the risk of kids getting leukemia by 280 per cent!
Second, the study is "Childhood Leukemia and Parents' Occupational and Home Exposures," by Lowengart et al, and was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Volume 79, Number 1, pages 39 to 46, in July 1987.
That's right--these results have been known to cancer societies for 15 years, including, presumably, the Cancer Society people in PEI.
Best regards,
Joe
Crozier
Mississauga, Ontario
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