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. 2023 Nov 7;120(45):e2306003120.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.2306003120. Epub 2023 Oct 30.

Agricultural intensification and childhood cancer in Brazil

Marin Elisabeth Skidmore  1 , Kaitlyn M Sims  2 , Holly K Gibbs  3
Affiliations

Agricultural intensification and childhood cancer in Brazil

Marin Elisabeth Skidmore et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Over the last several decades, Brazil has become both the world's leading soy producer and the world's leading consumer of hazardous pesticides. Despite identified links between pesticide exposure and carcinogenesis, there has been little population-level research on the effects of pesticide intensification on broader human health in Brazil. We estimate the relationship between expanded soy production-and related community exposure to pesticides-on childhood cancer incidence using 15 y of data on disease mortality. We find a statistically significant increase in pediatric leukemia following expanded local soy production, but timely access to treatment mitigates this relationship. We show that pesticide exposure likely occurs via water supply penetration. Our findings represent only the tip of the iceberg for substantial health externalities of high-input crop production and land use change. Our results are of particular interest in developing contexts with demand for intensified food production systems and underscore the need for stronger regulation of pesticides and increased public health attention to exposure in the broader community.

Keywords: agriculture; cancer; pesticides; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

H.K.G. has an ongoing consulting relationship with the nonprofit National Wildlife Federation. The National Wildlife Federation did not provide editorial oversight over the contents of this manuscript.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Percent of municipal area planted in soy in 2004 and 2019 across the Amazon and Cerrado.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Municipal-level distance from a hospital treating pediatric oncology in 2005 to 2009.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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