Cancer risk among residents of Rhineland-Palatinate winegrowing communities: a cancer-registry based ecological study

On the basis of the Rhineland-Palatinate cancer-registry, we calculated age-adjusted incidence rate ratios for communities with a medium area under wine cultivation (>5 to 20 percent) and a large area under wine cultivation (>20 percent) in comparison with communities with a small area under wine cultivation (>0 to 5 percent). In a side analysis, standardized cancer incidence ratios (SIR) were computed separately for winegrowing communities with small, medium and large area under wine cultivation using estimated German incidence rates as reference.A statistically significant positive association with the extent of viniculture can be observed for non-melanoma skin cancer in both males and females, and additionally for prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in males, but not in females. Lung cancer risk is significantly reduced in communities with a large area under cultivation. In the side-analysis, elevated SIR for endocrine-related tumors of the breast, testis, prostate, and endometrium were observed.This study points to a potentially increased risk of skin cancer, bladder cancer, and endocrine-mediated tumors in Rhineland-Palatinate winegrowing communities. However, due to the explorative ecologic study design and the problem of multiple testing, these findings are not conclusve for a causal relationship.Some previous studies point to a potential association between pesticide exposure resp. farming or winegrowing and lymphoma [1-5] or multiple myeloma [6-11], brain cancer [12-14], prostate cancer [15], or bladder cancer [16,17]. However, the mechanisms of the suspected carcinogenic effects of pesticides are widely unclear.Among the hypothesis on potential carcinogenic mechanisms from pesticides, the endocrine mediated effects have received much attention. Several pesticides interact with endocrine receptors in vitro or have endocrine-mediated effects in laboratory animals in vivo: The European Union has listed over 40 pesticides suspected to int