| The earliest record of any material being used as pesticide dates from Greek Antiquity. But until the 1940s, no chemical pesticide was used. Organic pesticides were introduced in 1943 to combat malaria and typhus. Since then, their usage has become extensive, whether for domestic, industrial or agricultural purposes. Parallely, the incidence of cancer has been increasing for several decades, in industrialized countries as well as in less developed countries, without no clear knowledge about the exact causes of such a trend. Since pesticides have weak estrogenic properties or are genotoxic, many authors have hypothesized that they may explain cancer risk, at least in part. This thesis aims to verify whether rural settings with higher pesticide use show increased cancer risk, in comparison with rural settings with lower pesticide use. I used a ecological approach in measuring pesticide exposure magnitude. But, the estimation of cancer risk varied with the cancer type. Overall, this study showed that: (a) the province of Quebec has a low pesticide consumption level, compared to other industrialized countries; and (b) cancer risk associated with pesticide exposure in rural settings in Quebec was low, and almost statistically non significant. However, in post-menopausal women, the risk was significantly slightly higher, even after controlling for social and material deprivation. |
