Herbicides and Lymphoma

I guess I’ll continue with my cancer theme here and briefly comment on a question I was asked the other day.

Do herbicides cause cancer?

Like all things – it’s controversial. There has been some good work done to show that the herbicide 2,4-D is associated with an increased risk of lymphoma in dogs. There’s also lots of work to suggest otherwise. (2,4-D is, by the way, a cousin of Agent Orange.)

As I mentioned in my post on cancer development, there is rarely ONE thing you can blame for causing a particular cancer. This is especially true for lymphoma. Genetics, chemical exposures, foods, and hormones are all associated. So the truth probably is that 2,4-D can probably cause cancer in a predisposed individual, but may not in another individual if all other things are equal.

I’m a believer that exposure to environmental chemicals like herbicides HAS to be related to our increased incidence of cancers (in general). Which ones to blame? That’s the sticky part! I don’t know. But since there is good research that shows 2,4-D is a likely suspect, I try to avoid it as much as physically possible.

AMH