Farmers and other agricultural workers represent a unique demographic: They’re healthier than most in many respects — for reasons like the high volume of physical labor they perform and typically early bedtimes — but because of their job, they’re also exposed to a variety of occupational hazards, including ultraviolet (UV) rays, engine exhaust and fuel, dust, fertilizers and pesticides.
These exposures may increase their risk for certain cancers.
In this article, we’ll explore:
- Which cancers are linked to farming?
- What’s behind the increased risk?
- The importance of prevention and early detection
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer and is looking for a second opinion, call us 24/7 at 877-524-4673.
Which Cancers Are Linked To Farming?
Unlike other professions, farming requires lots of hours spent outdoors. While that’s beneficial for physical activity levels and access to vitamin D, it’s problematic when, even on cloudy days, UV rays damage the skin, causing sunburn and increasing the risk of skin cancer.
Farmers also work with crop-protecting products that contain chemicals linked to certain types of cancer. For example, a growing body of evidence has linked agricultural chemicals to cancer in the state of Iowa, which has the fastest growing rate of new cancers in the country and the second-highest cancer rate overall, behind Kentucky.
Also, a study of pesticide applicators — mostly famers and their spouses — found they have a higher rate of certain cancers, including multiple myeloma, acute myeloid leukemia, and thyroid, testicular, peritoneal, lip and prostate cancer.
Other research found that farmers with a genetic predisposition for prostate cancer may have an even higher risk when exposed to certain pesticides.
Another study found that farmers have a significantly increased risk for developing several blood cancers, such as:
The same study also found that farmers have a substantially higher risk for developing certain solid cancers, including:
What’s Behind the Increased Risk?
The reason farmers are at a higher risk for some types of cancer has everything to do with their exposures.
The Sun
Farmers are at higher risk for developing skin cancer — the most diagnosed cancer in the world — because of how much time they spend in the sun, David Winchester, M.D., surgical oncologist at City of Hope® Cancer Center Chicago, said in a recent RFD Today interview.
Dr. Winchester says the data shows that 1 in every 3 agricultural workers will have at least one sunburn a year, which is impactful because just five sunburns over the course of a lifetime doubles melanoma risk.
“Sun exposure is impactful in all types of skin cancers,” Dr. Winchester says. “The [skin cancers] people hear about include squamous cell carcinomas, basal cell carcinomas and melanoma. Patients diagnosed with one of those types of skin cancer are at risk for the other two. And it all relates to your lifetime exposure to the sun.”
One study found that farmers account for a disproportionately large percentage of patients treated for basal cell carcinomas — the most common form of skin cancer. Another study found that about one-third of agricultural and construction workers get sunburned at least once a year.
Chemicals
Farmers’ exposure to pesticides far exceeds that of most people. While people who work in non-agricultural occupations may come in contact with low levels of pesticides through food and water, those employed in agricultural occupations like farming regularly use these chemical compounds to protect crops from weeds, insects, mold and mildew.
Yet some of the chemicals used in pesticides are linked to cancer. For example, glyphosate — a common herbicide — is applied to nearly 300 crop acres each year to kill unwanted plants and weeds. But the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance.
The Importance of Prevention and Early Detection
Understanding their cancer risk may help farmers prevent the disease from developing or detect it early, when it’s easier to treat, Dr. Winchester told RFD Today.
Skin Cancer
When skin cancer is diagnosed early, for example, the treatment is usually fairly simple — and effective. In fact, the five-year survival rate for melanomas diagnosed early is 99%.
Looking for skin cancer is easy, according to Dr. Winchester. It requires just a simple check of the skin performed by yourself or your doctor. It’s also knowing your ABCDEs when examining moles on the body. That means looking for changes, including:
- Asymmetry (when the edges don’t look the same)
- Border (that is ragged or blurred)
- Color (that is varied in the same mole)
- Diameter (that is more than 6 mm, the size of a pencil eraser)
- Evolving (or changing over time)
Other warning signs of skin cancer include sores that won’t heal, pigmentation that spreads and redness or swelling past a mole’s border. Skin cancer prevention involves knowing your risk and taking steps to reduce it.
If you’ve been diagnosed with skin cancer in the past or have a higher risk, you should go to the doctor more often for skin checks. Otherwise, annual checkups are a good rule of thumb.
“Farmers should modify their lifestyles early in their career,” Dr. Winchester told RFD Today. “Prevention is key. It’s much easier to talk about prevention than to talk about downstream effects to people who’ve had excessive exposure to the sun and ultraviolet light.”
But if you’re older, a good way to protect yourself is by performing regular skin checks.
Prostate Cancer
Another cancer type that serves as an example of the importance of early detection is prostate cancer. Because the disease doesn’t cause symptoms at an early stage, screening for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein used as a marker for the disease, is critical — even when the screening is no longer officially recommended.
For instance, Richard Carroll, a 78-year-old retired director of the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB), stopped getting PSA tests at his annual physicals once he turned 70.
After a friend urged Carroll to get the PSA test at an IFB health fair, Carroll learned his level was high — and, eventually, that he had prostate cancer.
“Richard’s story is exactly why these events [like the health fair] matter,” Kevin King, M.D., radiation oncologist at City of Hope Cancer Center Chicago and Carroll’s doctor, told FarmWeek in a recent article. “Thanks to a simple blood test that flagged an elevated level, we were able to help him get the additional workup and follow-up he needed. It was an honor to be part of the Illinois Farm Bureau’s Annual Meeting and provide free screenings to members of the farming community — men who often put their work and families first and may not prioritize their own health.”
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer and is looking for a second opinion, call us 24/7 at 877-524-4673.