Are Pesticides In Idaho Giving People Cancer?

The headline isn't there to scare, this is a real topic that scientists are looking into.

Researchers at both University of Idaho and Northern Arizona University have been discovering a possible link between pesticide use and cancer cases.

Alan Kolok, Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, lead two separate studies on the matter and thinks the results demand further research be done:

We’re not trying to be alarmist, and we’re not trying to say, ‘Oh, look, there’s a direct relationship between (the data). That’s not at all what they’re saying. But at the same time, it would be disingenuous of us to not recognize that in a darkened room, we keep seeing a shiny object. It really is a call to action of let’s do more research and let’s elaborate on what’s going on relative to that shiny object.

Kolok solely looked into Idaho, providing imperative research for other scientists like Cathy Propper, Kolok's colleague at Northern Arizona University. She says:

If we wanted to look just within states, like Alan did within Idaho, it might be possible to extract similar kinds of information. But as you can see when you take a look at the statewide analysis within the joint paper, every state’s different. As you go into each individual state, you start getting different kinds of scaling issues. So unless the data are fine grained enough to be able to extract that kind of information, it becomes difficult to interpret within states.

Does this mean we need to worry about getting sick if we live in a location where pesticides are being used? We don't know yet, but at least someone is looking into it.