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Pesticide Firms Aim to Block Cancer Lawsuits

Companies that manufacture and sell pesticides are supporting efforts to block lawsuits by people exposed to their products who suffer injury or illnesses, including cancer. Laws protecting the pesticide makers have been introduced in at least eight states, and drafts of legislation are circulating in more than 20 states, according to the Guardian. In Iowa, a bill opponents call the “Cancer Gag Act” was advanced in the state Senate earlier this month. Iowa has the second-highest rate of new cancers cases in the U.S. and the fastest-growing cancer rate. Many fear the skyrocketing number of cases is linked to the significant use of pesticides in agriculture. The bill would prevent people from suing the pesticide manufacturers for failing to warn them of health risks associated with their products as long as the product labels are approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Opponents say the legislation will prevent farmers and others who use pesticides from seeking redress in court should they contract cancer or other diseases. “We’re very worried. Our farmers feel that if they have injuries or illnesses due to their use of a pesticide they should have access to the courts,” said Aaron Lehman, an Iowa corn and soybean farmer and president of the Iowa Farmers Union. The bill’s supporters argue that they’re trying to ensure farmers don’t lose access to pesticides because of cases without scientific evidence filed by lawyers who entice sick people into going to court. The pesticide industry claims thousands of studies have proven the safety of their products and that the EPA provides rigorous oversight.

Cancer Survivors in Pain More Likely to Use Cannabis, Tobacco

About 30% of cancer survivors and about 50% of those with advanced disease experience chronic pain. Cancer-related pain may play a role in increased use of tobacco and cannabis by survivors, according to a retrospective analysis published Feb. 10 in Cancer. Researchers used two different national datasets to analyze survivors with recent pain and chronic pain. Survivors who experienced increased pain in the previous week were more likely to smoke cigarettes or e-cigarettes or use cannabis, but less likely to drink alcohol, than those who didn’t experience recent pain. Chronic pain sufferers were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to drink alcohol than those who didn’t experience chronic pain, the analysis found. Pain and opioid use have long been linked, but “these findings and the larger literature show us it is also important to think about nonopioid substance use—including tobacco—among cancer survivors with chronic pain,” Jessica M. Powers, a researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and a study author, told Healio. “Because pain and substance use are interconnected among cancer survivors, it’s essential to focus on treating both together in cancer care. Pain can drive substance use, and substance use can worsen pain and cause additional negative health effects, creating a cycle that’s hard to break,” Powers said.

Raising Awareness of the Alcohol-cancer Link

Alcohol increases the risk of getting a number of cancers, but awareness of the connection between drinking alcohol and getting cancer remains low. About 70% of people in the U.S. were not aware of the link between alcohol and cancer, according to a 2021 study published in Preventive Medicine Reports. “Awareness is really frustratingly low,” Jennifer Hay, a psychologist and behavioral scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and a study author, said in the Wall Street Journal. “We really need to make all of those changes in alcohol that we did with tobacco.” Alcohol contributes to roughly 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 deaths a year in the U.S., according to the Journal article. Cancer types linked to drinking alcohol are mouth, throat (pharynx), voice box (larynx), esophagus, colon and rectum, liver, and breast in women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Evidence is mixed on whether drinking alcohol is linked to cancer recurrence. A 2023 study in Cancer did not find an association between drinking alcohol and a breast cancer recurrence, but other studies have had mixed results, said Marilyn Kwan, lead author of the 2023 Cancer study and a researcher at Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Pleasanton. Still, most doctors advise limited alcohol intake for their patients who have had cancer, especially breast cancer. “I really think this is one of the few things that women can do to modify their breast cancer risk,” Cindy Cen, a breast surgeon at Northwell Health Cancer Institute in New Hyde Park, New York, told the Journal. “We don’t know so much about what causes breast cancer. Alcohol is something you have control over.”