AGRICOH represents a formidable platform for studying a variety of health outcomes, including but not restricted to cancer; respiratory, neurologic, and auto-immune diseases; reproductive outcomes; allergic disorders; injuries; and overall mortality in association with a wide array of agricultural exposures in the participating cohort studies. To strengthen research in under-studied settings the consortium strives to identify new participating agricultural cohorts in low- and middle-income countries.
AGRICOH consists of representatives of individual cohort studies and from institutions having special assigned roles such as in coordination or exposure harmonisation. AGRICOH is open to researchers interested in investigating health outcomes in association with exposures present during farming and in the agricultural environment, through AGRICOH members. The consortium is coordinated by a steering group that runs for a term of five years (currently 2021-2025).
NEWS
Cancer incidence in agricultural workers: Findings from an international consortium of agricultural cohort studies (AGRICOH)
Togawa K, Leon ME, Lebailly P, Beane Freeman LE, Nordby KC, Baldi I, MacFarlane E, Shin A, Park S, Greenlee RT, Sigsgaard T, Basinas I, Hofmann JN, Kjaerheim K, Douwes J, Denholm R, Ferro G, Sim MR, Kromhout H, Schüz J. Cancer incidence in agricultural workers: Findings from an international consortium of agricultural cohort studies (AGRICOH). Environ Int. 2021 Aug 27;157:106825. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106825. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34461377
On 27 August 2021, the Cancer subgroup published a paper on "Cancer incidence in agricultural workers: Findings from an international consortium of agricultural cohort studies (AGRICOH)." In this paper, the Cancer subgroup analyzed cancer incidence in >248,000 agricultural workers from 8 AGRICOH cohorts. The results suggest a lower risk of various cancers and an elevated risk of prostate cancer, multiple myeloma (female), and melanoma of skin (female) in agricultural workers compared to the general population. Those differences from the general population and the between-cohort variations may be due to underlying differences in risk factors and warrant further investigation of agricultural exposures.
AGRICOH virtual meeting 2021
On February 18, 2021, a virtual meeting of all AGRICOH members was held. In total, there were 66 participants from 15 countries. The overall aim of the meeting was to stimulate new projects within AGRICOH. Each cohort and sub-group (cancer, respiratory, neurologic, reproductive, and exposure assessment) provided updates of their recent activity. There were also presentations by AGRICOH members of recent work and possible research topics, such as nitrate in drinking water, biomarkers, microbiome, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, and multigenerational studies. We also welcomed two new cohorts from Brazil (the Rural workers and Cancer study, RUCAN) and Uganda (PESTROP-Uganda).
New AGRICOH Steering Group elected for the term 2021-2025
On December 1, 2020, the new Steering Group was elected for the term from January 2021 to December 2025. The Steering Group discusses general matters of the consortium and holds bi-monthly conference calls. The new Steering Group, in alphabetical order, will be Drs Isabelle Baldi (Subgroup lead "Neurological"), Laura Beane Freeman (Subgroup lead "Cancer"), Jeroen Douwes (Subgroup lead "Respiratory"), Hans Kromhout (Subgroup lead "Exposure"), Pierre Lebailly, Karl-Christian Nordby, Paul Romitti (Subgroup lead "Reproductive"), Joachim Schüz and Kayo Togawa, supported by Ljubica Zupunski as rapporteur.
Gender differences in respiratory health outcomes among farming cohorts around the globe: findings from the AGRICOH consortium
Fix J, Annesi-Maesano I, Baldi I, Boulanger M, Cheng S, Cortes S, Dalphin JC, Dalvie MA, Degano B, Douwes J, Eduard W, Elholm G, Ferreccio C, Harding AH, Jeebhay M, Kelly KM, Kromhout H, MacFarlane E, Maesano CN, Mitchell DC, Mwanga H, Naidoo S, Negatu B, Ngajilo D, Nordby KC, Parks CG, Schenker MB, Shin A, Sisgaard T, Sim M, Soumagne T, Thorne P, Yoo KY, Hoppin JA. J Agromedicine. 2020 Mar 17:1-12. doi: 10.1080/1059924X.2020.1713274. Epub ahead of print. PubMed PMID: 32182198.
The Respiratory group completes its first paper. Using respiratory data from 18 AGRICOH cohorts, the respiratory group compared differences in respiratory symptoms and disease among agricultural populations globally. This paper integrated data from over 200,000 farmers, farm workers and their spouses from 1992-2006. Overall, respiratory symptoms were more common in male than female farmers, while asthma was more common in women. Specifically allergic asthma was more common in women. This paper highlights the diversity in agricultural practices among the cohorts in AGRICOH, but indicates that respiratory symptoms and disease remain a major burden for agricultural workers.
AGRICOH Subgroup Cancer Meeting November 2019
On 26th and 27th November AGRICOH members of the Subgroup on Cancer who are actively involved in the combined analyses of three AGRICOH cohorts from France (AGRICAN), Norway (CNAP), and the USA (AHS), met in Utrecht, The Netherlands, co-hosted by the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) of the University of Utrecht and the Section of Environment and Radiation of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO).
The objective of the meeting was to plan future projects, including a cancer incidence comparison between the agricultural and general populations of various countries, more in-depth analyses with updated follow up of pooling projects on the risk of haematological malignancies in relation to pesticides associated with risk in previous analyses, and in relation to other selected cancers.
Animal farming and the risk of lymphohaematopoietic cancers: a meta-analysis of three cohort studies within the AGRICOH consortium
El-Zaemey S, Schinasi LH, Ferro G, Tual S, Lebailly P, Baldi I, Nordby KC, Kjærheim K, Schüz J, Monnereau A, Brouwer M, Koutros S, Hofmann J, Kristensen P, Kromhout H, Leon ME, Beane Freeman LE. Occup Environ Med. 2019 Nov;76(11):827-837. doi:10.1136/oemed-2018-105655. Epub 2019 Jul 13. PubMed PMID: 31302607.
Published article on Professional Pesticide Use and the Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
On March 18, 2019, the first AGRICOH paper on cancer risk was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Pooling the "Agriculture and cancer (AGRICAN)" study from France, the "Cancer in the Norwegian Agricultural Population (CNAP)" study from Norway and the "Agricultural Health Study (AHS)" from the US, totalling more than 300,000 farmers, the possible association between professional exposure to any of 14 selected pesticide chemical groups or 33 individual active ingredients and the risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) or its major subtypes was investigated. The vast majority of combinations between pesticide exposures and NHL or its subtypes did not show an association. Exceptions were moderate associations between NHL and ever use of terbufos; chronic lymphocytic leukaemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma and deltamethrin; and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and glyphosate; as well as inverse associations of NHL with the broader groups of organochlorine insecticides and phenoxy herbicides, after adjusting for exposure to other pesticides. The article is accessible through open access at Pubmed
Leon ME, Schinasi LH, Lebailly P, Beane Freeman L, Nordby KC, Ferro G, et al. Pesticide use and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoid malignancies in agricultural cohorts from
France, Norway and the USA: a pooled analysis from the AGRICOH consortium. Int J Epidemiol 2019 (March 18)