Orchardists Study

Chief Investigators

Funded by: Cancer Council Victoria

The Orchardists Study cohort is a newly assembled historical cohort of about 12,000 pesticide-exposed workers in Victoria and New South Wales. The cohort has been assembled from archive records of routine state government surveys from the 1960s-1980s.

By record-linkage to the Australian cancer and death registries, this study aims to determine if cancer incidence in this cohort differs from the incidence in the general Australian population and then to investigate any relationships between specific pesticide exposures and cancer outcomes. The availability of subject-specific pesticide exposure data collected at the time of the surveys allows a more rigorous exposure assessment than would be possible using retrospectively collected exposure data.

The findings of this study are expected to make an important contribution to the regulation of pesticide use in the agricultural sector and contribute to the body of knowledge in relation the carcinogenic potential of pesticides widely used in Australian workplaces.