Cancer Hazards: Parathion, Malathion, Diazanon, Tetrachlorvinphos and Glyphosate

The 2015 IARC Classifications: Implications for Regulation, Environmental Justice, and Global Health

(AESS Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies and Sciences Series)

This  book focuses on a monograph published in 2017 by the International  Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health  Organization (WHO), discussing its carcinogen hazard classification of  four pesticides: parathion, malathion, diazinon, and tetrachlorvinphos  as well as the herbicide glyphosate.

The monograph provided a  detailed discussion of considerations and conclusions made by a group of  experts who met in 2015 to evaluate these compounds. Although not  universally true, many of these substances, from the time of their  commercial introduction to their present-day use, have spread  significantly in the environment, affecting animals and plants in the  larger ecosystem, the overall health of the environment, and human  health.

This book develops each of these issues before turning to  the IARC review process, both the general process and its evolution  over time, and compound selection criteria and deliberations regarding  the substances discussed in the 2017 monograph. Final book sections  detail scientific and private sector reactions to and implications of  the IARC classifications. Hazard identification is contrasted with  various models of quantitative risk assessment. The last chapters  highlight the importance of hazard identification for members of  domestic and global underserved communities involved in farming and  landscape work, where exposures may vary widely, are not well-regulated,  and where health outcomes are often not carefully documented.