WHO finds cancer link to insecticides
Print Edition
The insecticide lindane, once widely used in agriculture and to treat human lice and scabies, causes cancer and has been specifically linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the World Health Organization said yesterday.
The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer also said that DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, probably causes cancer, with scientific evidence linking it to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, or NHL, testicular cancer and liver cancer.
In a review of various agricultural chemicals, IARC’s specialist panel said it had decided to classify lindane as “carcinogenic to humans” in its Group 1 category, and DDT as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in its Group 2A class.
Lindane, which since 2009 has been banned or restricted in most countries under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, was previously used extensively for insect control in agriculture. An exemption to the ban allows it to be used as a second-line treatment for lice and scabies.
DDT was introduced for the control of insect-borne diseases during World War II and was later applied widely to eradicate malaria and in agriculture.
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