14
Jul
In Call for Eliminating Cancer Causing Pesticides, Group Says They Are Not Needed for Land Management
(Beyond Pesticides, July 14, 2025) With the rise in early onset cancer rates and mortality for breast, pancreatic, and gastric cancers, a wide and growing body of science linking pesticides to cancer, and associations between childhood cancer and pesticides, Beyond Pesticides is urging nationwide efforts to eliminate the use of cancer causing pesticides.
Peter Hopewood, MD, FACS, writing in a bulletin in the American College of Surgeons says, “The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been in the healthcare spotlight since 2019, but the reality is that heart disease and cancer killed more people than COVID-19 in 2020 . . . and were our nation’s leading causes of death for decades before that. Among Americans younger than 85 years of age, cancer remains the leading cause of death.” Dr. Hopewood is convinced that “cancer has been an ongoing pandemic since life expectancy increased during the 20th century.”
In 1985, Imperial Chemical Industries and the American Cancer Society declared October “Breast Cancer Awareness Month” as part of a campaign to promote mammograms for the early detection of breast cancer. Unfortunately, most of us are all too aware of breast cancer. Detection and treatment of cancers do not solve the problem. A preventive approach is needed, not just awareness. Barbara Brenner, activist and executive director of Breast Cancer Action (BCA) in San Francisco, asks, “There is a value to awareness, but awareness of what, and to what end?”
Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Disease Database tracks the independent peer- reviewed literature on cancer and other adverse health effects. One recent study finds that the cancer risk posed by pesticides rivals that of smoking. A recent article in The New Lede documents case studies of cancer diagnoses linked to chemical-intensive agriculture. Current national cancer rates, according to the American Cancer Society, show that two million new cancer cases are projected to occur during 2025 in the U.S. Additional research predicts 618,120 cancer deaths this year as well, highlighting a crisis of great concern.
Farmers, farmworkers, and their families face disproportionate risks from toxic pesticide exposure. Other socioeconomic factors contribute to disparities in the ability to receive treatment. A frightening indication for the future comes from findings that cancer is striking at an earlier age, causing some to warn of an epidemic of early-onset cancer.
Beyond the huge personal toll that cancer demands of patients and their families, including survivors, there are enormous financial costs. The personal financial burdens of paying for cancer treatment and hidden costs, including travel, lodging, and loss of income, add to the stress of the disease on both patients and their families. On a larger scale, the National Cancer Institute finds, “National costs for cancer care were estimated to be $190.2 billion in 2015. Assuming constant future costs, we project costs to be $208.9 billion in 2020 (2020 U.S. dollars), an increase of 10 percent that is only due to the aging and growth of the U.S. population. These cost estimates include cancer-attributable costs for medical services and oral prescription drugs.” In addition, according to the Cancer Atlas, “The economic burden of lost productivity due to premature mortality from cancer is greater than cancer treatment and represents most of the total economic burden of cancer.”
In spite of the huge burden placed on Americans individually and collectively, U.S. policy allows cancer-causing pesticide use even though it is not needed to grow food and manage land. EPA regulates pesticides under the 1947 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), to which Congress added a major revision with the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) in 1996—which repealed the Delaney Clause, which required the banning of chemical additives in food that cause cancer in humans or animals—if a substance was carcinogenic, no level of it would be allowed to be added to processed food. There was no acceptable threshold below w
With the availability of safer alternatives to toxic chemicals in agriculture, parks, homes, and gardens, the allowance of carcinogens and other substances with documented harm to health and the environment is unreasonable. Organic methods are proven to provide numerous health benefits, as well as more nutritious food, that can both protect and enhance biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Beyond Pesticides is urging the public to: Tell EPA and Congress to eliminate cancer-causing pesticides that contribute to the ongoing cancer pandemic.
Letter to CongressPeter Hopewood, MD, FACS, convinced that “cancer has been an ongoing pandemic since life expectancy increased during the 20th century,” writes in a bulletin in the American College of Surgeons, “The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been in the healthcare spotlight since 2019, but the reality is that heart disease and cancer killed more people than COVID-19 in 2020 . . . and were our nation’s leading causes of death for decades before that. Among Americans younger than 85 years of age, cancer remains the leading cause of death.”
In 1985, October was declared “Breast Cancer Awareness Month” as part of a campaign to promote mammograms for the early detection of breast cancer. Unfortunately, most of us are all too aware of breast cancer. Detection and treatment of cancers do not solve the problem. We need prevention, not just awareness.
A large body of science links increased cancer risks with exposure to agricultural chemicals, including petrochemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. One recent study finds that the cancer risk posed by pesticides rivals that of smoking. The American Cancer Society projects two million new cancer cases during 2025 in the U.S. Additional research predicts 618,120 cancer deaths this year as well, highlighting a crisis of great concern.
Farmers, farmworkers, and their families face disproportionate risks from toxic pesticide exposure. Socioeconomic factors contribute to disparities in the ability to receive treatment. A frightening indication for the future comes from findings that cancer is striking at an earlier age, causing some to warn of an epidemic of early-onset cancer.
Beyond the huge personal toll that cancer demands of patients and their families, including survivors, there are enormous financial costs. The personal financial burdens of paying for cancer treatment and hidden costs—including travel, lodging, and loss of income—add to the stress on both patients and families. On a larger scale, the National Cancer Institute finds, “National costs for cancer care were estimated to be $190.2 billion in 2015. Assuming constant future costs, we project costs to be $208.9 billion in 2020 (2020 U.S. dollars), an increase of 10 percent that is only due to the aging and growth of the U.S. population. These cost estimates include cancer-attributable costs for medical services and oral prescription drugs.” In addition, according to the Cancer Atlas, “The economic burden of lost productivity due to premature mortality from cancer is greater than cancer treatment and represents most of the total economic burden of cancer.”
Despite the huge burden placed on Americans individually and collectively, the use of cancer-causing pesticides is allowed even though it is not needed to grow food and manage land. EPA regulates pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, which allows pesticides to be used only in the absence of unreasonable adverse effects. Although the Food Quality Protection Act repealed the Delaney Clause, which required the banning of chemical additives in food that cause cancer, replacing it with a risk assessment protocol that allows for uncertainty, ignores preexisting health conditions and vulnerabilities, fails to evaluate chemical mixtures and synergistic effects, and establishes levels of “acceptable” harm, the availability of safer alternatives to toxic chemicals in agriculture, parks, homes, and gardens, makes the continued allowance of carcinogens and other substances with documented harm to health and the environment unreasonable.
Organic methods are proven to provide numerous benefits that can prevent cancer, protect and enhance biodiversity, and mitigate the effects of climate change. Please support legislation that eliminates cancer-causing pesticides and promotes organic agriculture and land management.
Thank you.
For additional context and background, please see Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide Induced Diseases Database [PIDD] resource on cancer, available below! ⬇️
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
