The nitrate ingested over the course of a person’s adult lifetime through the consumption of tap water and bottled water could be a risk factor for prostate cancer, particularly in the case of aggressive tumors and in younger men. This is the conclusion of a study conducted in Spain and led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation. The findings have been published in Environmental Health Perspectives.
The study also suggests that diet plays an important role. The researchers found that eating plenty of fiber, fruit/vegetables and vitamin C could reduce the negative effect of nitrate in drinking water.
To evaluate the possible association between prostate cancer and long-term exposure to nitrate and THMs in drinking water, a research team led by ISGlobal studied 697 cases of prostate cancer in Spanish hospitals between 2008 and 2013 (including 97 aggressive tumors), as well as a control group made up of 927 men aged 38-85 years who had not been diagnosed with cancer at the time of the study. The average nitrate and trihalomethanes to which each participant had been exposed since the age of 18 was estimated based on where they had lived and the type (tap water, bottled water or, in some cases, well water) and amount of water they had drunk throughout their lives. Estimates were made on the basis of available data from drinking water controls carried out by municipalities or concessionary companies, from analyses of bottled water of the most widely distributed brands, and from measurements taken in different Spanish locations supplied by groundwater.
The findings showed that the higher the nitrate intake, the greater the association with prostate cancer. Participants with higher waterborne nitrate ingestion (lifetime average of more than 14 mg per day) were 1.6 times more likely to develop low-grade or medium-grade prostate cancer and nearly 3 times more likely to develop an aggressive prostate tumor than participants with lower nitrate intakes (lifetime average of less than 6 mg per day).
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) release on Newswise
