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News OESOPHAGEAL CANCER MAY BE CAUSED BY FERTILIZER USED ON VEGETABLES AND FRUIT Increasing our regular consumption of fruit and vegetables is at the core of all Europe Against Cancer literature. But new research carried out at Glasgow University, Scotland, by Professor Kenneth McColl now suggests that vegetable consumption may be fuelling the rise in some cases of oesophageal cancer. It has been common knowledge for over 50 years that nitrates occur naturally in fruit and vegetables and that their function is to make these food products grow. Soon after this discovery, it seemed logical and indeed a boost to the war effort, to increase the nitrates in vegetables and fruit to help them to grow even more. This strategy took hold and annual use of nitrate fertilizer grew by more than 20 times from 75 000 tonnes in 1939 to 1.6 million tonnes in 1990 when their use was eventually restrained. By the early 1980s a sinister trend was emerging, with an increased incidence of patients presenting with cancer at the lower end of the oesophagus – at the oesophageal–stomach border to be exact (GO junction cancer). This rise in incidence followed the same curve as the increase http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Journal of Cancer Care Wiley

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European Journal of Cancer Care , Volume 11 (2) – Jun 1, 2002
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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
0961-5423
eISSN
1365-2354
DOI
10.1046/j.1365-2354.2002.00320.x
Publisher site
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Abstract

OESOPHAGEAL CANCER MAY BE CAUSED BY FERTILIZER USED ON VEGETABLES AND FRUIT Increasing our regular consumption of fruit and vegetables is at the core of all Europe Against Cancer literature. But new research carried out at Glasgow University, Scotland, by Professor Kenneth McColl now suggests that vegetable consumption may be fuelling the rise in some cases of oesophageal cancer. It has been common knowledge for over 50 years that nitrates occur naturally in fruit and vegetables and that their function is to make these food products grow. Soon after this discovery, it seemed logical and indeed a boost to the war effort, to increase the nitrates in vegetables and fruit to help them to grow even more. This strategy took hold and annual use of nitrate fertilizer grew by more than 20 times from 75 000 tonnes in 1939 to 1.6 million tonnes in 1990 when their use was eventually restrained. By the early 1980s a sinister trend was emerging, with an increased incidence of patients presenting with cancer at the lower end of the oesophagus – at the oesophageal–stomach border to be exact (GO junction cancer). This rise in incidence followed the same curve as the increase

Journal

European Journal of Cancer Care – Wiley

Published: Jun 1, 2002

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