What Doctors Don't Tell YouCommonly used garden and household pesticides may cause brain cancer in children, according to an American study.
The research by the Chronic Disease Prevention Division at the Missouri Department of Health (The Observer, 28 March 1993) compared the exposure to pesticides of 45 brain cancer victims under 10 with 85 healthy children and 108 children with other types of cancer.
It concludes that there are “significant positive associations” between the incidence of childhood brain cancer and exposure to lindane, carbaryl, dichlorvos and diazinon all active ingredients in insecticides used to control head lice, household bugs and garden pests, which are widely available in the UK and the US.
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
