Medicine: Farmers' Risk

They seem more cancer-prone

Life on the farm may be healthier than city living in many respects, but researchers at the University of Iowa have found that the state's farmers run much higher risks than urban dwellers of developing and dying from six types of cancer. Analyzing the death certificates of more than 20,000 white male lowans, Dr. Leon Burmeister and his colleagues found that prostate, stomach, lymph gland and lip cancer, as well as leukemia and multiple myeloma (a form of bone marrow cancer), occurred up to three times more frequently among farmers.

Burmeister, associate professor of preventive medicine and environmental health, cannot explain the higher incidences among farmers, but concedes they may be somehow related to farming demands and practices. The cause of lip cancer, which was three times more common among farmers than their city brethren, seems obvious. Explains Burmeister: "We could say with a fair amount of confidence that it is probably related to sun exposure. But for the others, particularly prostatic cancer, we don't really know." He speculates that leukemia may be related to dairy farming or to corn raising. "It is certainly something worth pursuing," he says, "but it will take a long time to make the connection, if we ever make it." ∎