The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica

The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica

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Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent and the leading cause of death from cancer in women worldwide. The low percentage of cases related to reproductive history risk factors and to genetics suggests that the environment may play a role in its etiology. Pesticide exposure has been hy...

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Autor principal: Santamaría-Ulloa, Carolina
Formato: Online
Idioma:spa
Publicado: Universidad de Costa Rica 2009
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/psm/article/view/22822
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institution Universidad de Costa Rica
collection Población y Salud en Mesoamérica
language spa
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author Santamaría-Ulloa, Carolina
spellingShingle Santamaría-Ulloa, Carolina
The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica
author_facet Santamaría-Ulloa, Carolina
author_sort Santamaría-Ulloa, Carolina
description Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent and the leading cause of death from cancer in women worldwide. The low percentage of cases related to reproductive history risk factors and to genetics suggests that the environment may play a role in its etiology. Pesticide exposure has been hypothesized to have an important effect. Objective: This ecological study tests whether BC incidence in Costa Rica is related to pesticide environmental exposure (PEE), controlling for access to health care, fertility, age at first pregnancy, and socioeconomic status. Methods: A Poisson regression model was run. Spatial analysis techniques to test for spatial autocorrelation, and geographically weighted regressions were used. Results: PEE had a statistically significant direct association with BC for women 45 yrs+. The corresponding incidence rate ratio for PEE was 1.29. This means that after controlling for other risk factors, moving a district to the next decile of PEE was associated with 29% increase in BC incidence for women 45+. PEE was significant in some rural and agricultural areas of the country, after controlling for other risk factors. Conclusions: There seems to be an actual relation between breast cancer and pesticides. Since it is a preventable risk factor, this is an important public health issue to be debated. Paying more attention to health consequences that derivate from environmental exposure would imply a shift toward the application of the precautionary principle. Conclusions about causality can not be drawn from an ecologic approach, like the one taken in this study.
title The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica
title_short The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica
title_full The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica
title_fullStr The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica
title_sort impact of pesticide exposure on breast cancer incidence. evidence from costa rica
title_alt The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica
publisher Universidad de Costa Rica
publishDate 2009
url https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/psm/article/view/22822
work_keys_str_mv AT santamariaulloacarolina theimpactofpesticideexposureonbreastcancerincidenceevidencefromcostarica
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spelling PSM228222021-03-17T16:08:15Z The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica The Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Breast Cancer Incidence. Evidence from Costa Rica Santamaría-Ulloa, Carolina Costa Rica Cancer Breast Cancer Risk Factors Pesticides Environment Environmental Exposure Precautionary Principle Costa Rica Cancer Breast Cancer Risk Factors Pesticides Environment Environmental Exposure Precautionary Principle Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent and the leading cause of death from cancer in women worldwide. The low percentage of cases related to reproductive history risk factors and to genetics suggests that the environment may play a role in its etiology. Pesticide exposure has been hypothesized to have an important effect. Objective: This ecological study tests whether BC incidence in Costa Rica is related to pesticide environmental exposure (PEE), controlling for access to health care, fertility, age at first pregnancy, and socioeconomic status. Methods: A Poisson regression model was run. Spatial analysis techniques to test for spatial autocorrelation, and geographically weighted regressions were used. Results: PEE had a statistically significant direct association with BC for women 45 yrs+. The corresponding incidence rate ratio for PEE was 1.29. This means that after controlling for other risk factors, moving a district to the next decile of PEE was associated with 29% increase in BC incidence for women 45+. PEE was significant in some rural and agricultural areas of the country, after controlling for other risk factors. Conclusions: There seems to be an actual relation between breast cancer and pesticides. Since it is a preventable risk factor, this is an important public health issue to be debated. Paying more attention to health consequences that derivate from environmental exposure would imply a shift toward the application of the precautionary principle. Conclusions about causality can not be drawn from an ecologic approach, like the one taken in this study. Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent and the leading cause of death from cancer in women worldwide. The low percentage of cases related to reproductive history risk factors and to genetics suggests that the environment may play a role in its etiology. Pesticide exposure has been hypothesized to have an important effect. Objective: This ecological study tests whether BC incidence in Costa Rica is related to pesticide environmental exposure (PEE), controlling for access to health care, fertility, age at first pregnancy, and socioeconomic status. Methods: A Poisson regression model was run. Spatial analysis techniques to test for spatial autocorrelation, and geographically weighted regressions were used. Results: PEE had a statistically significant direct association with BC for women 45 yrs+. The corresponding incidence rate ratio for PEE was 1.29. This means that after controlling for other risk factors, moving a district to the next decile of PEE was associated with 29% increase in BC incidence for women 45+. PEE was significant in some rural and agricultural areas of the country, after controlling for other risk factors. Conclusions: There seems to be an actual relation between breast cancer and pesticides. Since it is a preventable risk factor, this is an important public health issue to be debated. Paying more attention to health consequences that derivate from environmental exposure would imply a shift toward the application of the precautionary principle. Conclusions about causality can not be drawn from an ecologic approach, like the one taken in this study. Universidad de Costa Rica 2009-07-01 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Article application/pdf https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/psm/article/view/22822 10.15517/psm.v7i1.22822 Población y Salud en Mesoamérica; Volumen 7, Número 1: julio-diciembre 2009 Población y Salud en Mesoamérica; Volumen 7, Número 1: julio-diciembre 2009 Población y Salud en Mesoamérica; Volumen 7, Número 1: julio-diciembre 2009 1659-0201 spa https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/psm/article/view/22822/23045 Copyright (c) 2016 Población y Salud en Mesoamérica

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