High consumption of pesticides in agricultural fields leads to prevalence of cancer cases in rural pockets of eastern India: A case study

Abstract

AbstractThis study was performed to evaluate the carcinogenic health risk of pesticides used in agricultural field in rural pockets of eastern India. The analysis of pesticide residue in rice grain sample was performed by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC‐MS). It was observed that for pesticide DDT, the HR values was ranging between 0.5 to 3.2 and for lindane HR was 0.4 to 1.1, respectively. The DDT and Lindane exhibited HR values >1 in some sampling sites which revealed the carcinogenic effects and HR <1 in some sampling sites which revealed non carcinogenic effects of same pesticide. These results revealed a clear indication of potential carcinogenic health risk to human health through consumption of contaminated rice in some areas of Bargarh district. DDT has a long half‐life, so it persists in the environment for a longer period of time and induces carcinogenic risk to human health predominantly than other pesticide lindane. A case study on cancer prevalence in Bargarh district was also carried out to support the findings of quantitative analysis. The primary data collected from the cancer affected area by personal questionnaires method to the person concern and the secondary data collected from the Bargarh District Head Quarters Hospital's register. The cancer death reported by the from the year 2015 to 2021 was 320, 380, 293, 323, 278, 409, 346 in the year of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 respectively, with the total number of 2349 cases. From the questionnaire data, it was observed that the occurrence of male and female cancer cases was 51.75% and 48.25%, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that there was no significant difference in gender wise cancer prevalence. The most affected age group was 51–60, that is, 26.92% followed by 41–50, that is, 23.42%. Therefore, it was concluded that the middle‐aged adults (40–60) were more vulnerable to the cancer than young adults (3–40) and old adults (60–100). The most prevalent cancer was breast (22.72%) followed by stomach (14.33%).