Pesticides such as glyphosate could play a role in cardiac arrhythmias. Photo: Shutterstock
The Westerveld citizens’ initiative Meten=Weten is working with Professor Bianca Brundel on the role that pesticides play in heart rhythm disorders. The research is receiving national attention, television recordings have already been made in Dwingeloo.
Common chemicals like glyphosate, mcpa and boscalid, used to control weeds, can disrupt the heart rhythm. According to scholars, there are such clear indications that the Amsterdam professor Bianca Brundel will conduct further research. With a major grant from the National Science Agenda of NWO (the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research), she will investigate the effect of pesticides on atrial fibrillation from September.
No hard conclusions
“We are on the trail of a link,” says molecular and cell biologist Brundel, who is a specialist in cardiac arrhythmias at Amsterdam UMC. “We conclude from initial studies that exposure to pesticides increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, also known as atrial fibrillation. There are no firm conclusions yet and we are currently working on a scientific publication. In this research, in addition to experimental research into cultured atrial heart cells and fruit flies, I also want to use citizen science to determine whether atrial fibrillation occurs more often in people who work with pesticides, such as horticulturists, florists and farmers, or who live near fields where they are used.”
Brundel works together with the citizens’ initiative Meten=Weten, which itself also conducts research into the effect of agricultural poisons in bulb fields in the Drenthe.
heart rhythm disorder
Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in western countries; 345,000 Dutch people suffer from it and 45,000 new diagnoses are added every year. The cells in the atrium of the heart contract irregularly and too quickly, causing palpitations, agitation, dizziness and fainting as possible consequences. Atrial fibrillation also increases the risk of stroke and heart failure. “We want to know what the trigger is,” says Brundel. “Now all patients receive the same therapy, but what is the cause?
According to experts, there have been indications for some time that the use of pesticides also contributes to Parkinson’s. The Nijmegen professor of neurology Bas Bloem speaks of a pandemic and argues for stricter admission requirements and a ban on ‘substances that are not completely safe’.
The research is receiving national attention, for example, television recordings have already been made in Dwingeloo for Een Today. In the autumn, Meten=Weten wants to organize an evening in which Bianca Brundel explains the research.