Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
Volume 167, Issue 10, Pages 1235-1246Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwn028
Keywords
agrochemicals; diabetes mellitus; environmental exposure; hydrocarbons; chlorinated; insecticides; pesticides; phosphoric acid esters
Categories
Funding
- Intramural NIH HHS [Z01 ES049030-11] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Exposure to certain environmental toxicants may be associated with increased risk of developing diabetes. The authors' aim was to investigate the relation between lifetime exposure to specific agricultural pesticides and diabetes incidence among pesticide applicators. The study included 33,457 licensed applicators, predominantly non-Hispanic White males, enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study. Incident diabetes was self-reported in a 5-year follow-up interview (1999-2003), giving 1,176 diabetics and 30,611 nondiabetics for analysis. Lifetime exposure to pesticides and covariate information were reported by participants at enrollment (1993-1997). Using logistic regression, the authors considered two primary measures of pesticide exposure: ever use and cumulative lifetime days of use. They found seven specific pesticides (aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, dichlorvos, trichlorfon, alachlor, and cyanazine) for which the odds of diabetes incidence increased with both ever use and cumulative days of use. Applicators who had used the organochlorine insecticides aldrin, chlordane, and heptachlor more than 100 lifetime days had 51%, 63%, and 94% increased odds of diabetes, respectively. The observed association of organochlorine and organophosphate insecticides with diabetes is consistent with results from previous human and animal studies. Long-term exposure from handling certain pesticides, in particular, organochlorine and organophosphate insecticides, may be associated with increased risk of diabetes.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available