Agriculture in Relation to Cancer (Health)

According to National Cancer Institute (NIH)
What is the Agricultural Health Study?

In 1993, scientists from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began a research project known as the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) to evaluate the role of agricultural exposures in the development of cancer and other diseases in members of the farming community. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health joined the study in 2000.
The AHS is also providing an opportunity to assess the effects of diet, cooking methods, and other lifestyle and genetic factors on the risks of cancer and other diseases. The results will provide information that can be used to create a safe work environment and a healthy lifestyle for agricultural workers and their families.

Who are the participants?

The vast majority of the nearly 90,000 participants in the AHS are either farmers or the wives of farmers; about 52,000 are farmers and 32,000 are wives of farmers. All of the participants were recruited in North Carolina or Iowa.
Participants classified as "private pesticide applicators" are farmers or nursery workers. The study also includes a small percentage of "commercial pesticide applicators" from Iowa who work for pest control companies or for businesses, such as warehouses or grain mills, that use pesticides regularly; about 5,000 participants are commercial applicators.

What are some of the cancer trends among farmers?

Farmers in many countries, including the United States, have lower overall death rates and cancer rates than the general population. Lower death rates among farmers for heart disease and cancers of the lung, esophagus, bladder, and colon, in particular, are thought to be due, at least in part, to lower smoking rates, as well as more physically active lifestyles and dietary factors.
However, compared with the general population, the rates for certain diseases, including some types of cancer, appear to be higher among agricultural workers, which may be related to exposures that are common in their work environments. For example, farming communities have higher rates of leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and soft tissue sarcoma, as well as cancers of the skin, lip, stomach, brain, and prostate.
Even though no one set of risk factors explains these higher cancer rates, the range of environmental exposures in the farming community is of concern. Farmers, farm workers, and farm family members may be exposed to substances such as pesticides, engine exhausts, solvents, dusts, animal viruses, fertilizers, fuels, and specific microbes that may account for these elevated cancer rates. However, human studies reported to date have not allowed researchers to sort out which of these factors may be linked to which cancer types.