Cancer mortality among agricultural workers from Serrana Region, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

One of the proposed hypotheses to explain the higher incidence of specific-site cancers among agricultural workers is their higher exposure to pesticides. The role of pesticide exposure in morbidity and mortality profiles in Brazil is not well known. Therefore, in order to contribute to increase knowledge on this subject, an ecological analysis aiming to investigate cancer mortality among agricultural workers in an important agricultural area of the Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, was performed. All causes of death for male workers 30–69 years old provided by the National Mortality Information System between 1979 and 1998 were evaluated. To estimate cancer mortality risks of selected sites, mortality odds ratio (MOR) was employed, and three reference populations were used. Higher mortality of esophagus, stomach, and larynx cancer in agricultural workers 50–69 years old was observed in the period from 1979 to 1988 and of esophagus and stomach cancer from 1989 to 1998. Agricultural workers 30–49 years old showed higher, but not statistically significant, mortality by stomach, esophagus, liver, testis, and prostate cancer, and soft-tissue sarcoma in the period of 1979–1988, and by testis and penis cancer, leukemia, and soft-tissue sarcoma in the period of 1989–1998. Despite the limitations of ecological approaches concerning causality ascertainment, we believe that this study raises questions of the possible role of pesticide exposure on the cancer mortality profile among Brazilian agricultural workers.