A recent study suggests nitrates in drinking water were associated with a higher risk of colorectal cancer. Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark reported in the International Journal of Cancer wrote that exposure to the highest nitrate levels raised the risk of colorectal cancer by 15%, compared with exposure to the lowest concentrations.
These findings confirmed long-held suspicions that long-term exposure to nitrate — a common groundwater contaminant that primarily originates from agricultural fertilizers — may be linked to cancer risk, according to investigators.
These risks remained significant even at low levels of nitrate deemed acceptable by current drinking water standards.
