Pesticide, prostate cancer link

LIEGE, Belgium, June 24 (UPI) -- A team of researchers in Belgium, France and the French West Indies have linked a pesticide and increased prostate cancer risk.

Researchers at the Center for Analytical Research and Technology, University of Liege in Belgium, the University of Rennes in France, and the University Hospital Centre at the University of the French West Indies and Guiana, have associated increased blood levels of the pesticide chlordecone -- also known as Kepone -- to a significant increased risk of prostate cancer.

The case control study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, also found men presenting genetic variations that reduce their ability to eliminate chlordecone have a higher risk of developing the disease.

The researchers compared the characteristics of 709 consecutive incident cases of prostate cancer in the French West Indies and 723 controls without prostate cancer.

The researchers say chlordecone is an organochlorine insecticide used in the French West Indies from 1973 to 1993 to control the banana root borer. Permanently polluted soils and waters continue to be a primary source of foodstuff contamination and human exposure.