Agricultural crop density and risk of childhood cancer in the midwestern United States: an ecologic study.

Benjamin J Booth,Mary E Turyk,Leslie T Stayner,Mary H Ward

doi:10.1186/s12940-015-0070-3

Abstract

BackgroundThere is limited evidence for an association between agricultural pesticide exposure and certain types of childhood cancers. Numerous studies have evaluated exposure to pesticides and childhood cancer and found positive associations. However, few studies have examined the density of agricultural land use as a surrogate for residential exposure to agricultural pesticides and results are mixed. We examined the association of county level agricultural land use and the incidence of specific childhood cancers.MethodsWe linked county-level agricultural census data (2002 and 2007) and cancer incidence data for children ages 0–4 diagnosed between 2004 and 2008 from cancer registries in six Midwestern states. Crop density (percent of county area that was harvested) was estimated for total agricultural land, barley, dry beans, corn, hay, oats, sorghum, soybeans, sugar beets, and wheat. Rate ratios and 95 % confidence intervals were estimated using generalized estimating equation Poisson regression models and were adjusted for race, sex, year of diagnosis, median household income, education, and population density.ResultsWe found statistically significant exposure-response relationships for dry beans and total leukemias (RR per 1 % increase in crop density = 1.09, 95 % CI = 1.03–1.14) and acute lymphoid leukemias (ALL) (RR = 1.10, 95 % CI = 1.04–1.16); oats and acute myeloid leukemias (AML) (RR = 2.03, 95 % CI = 1.25, 3.28); and sugar beets and total leukemias (RR = 1.11, 95 % CI = 1.04, 1.19) and ALL (RR = 1.11, 95 % CI = 1.02, 1.21). State-level analyses revealed some additional positive associations for total leukemia and CNS tumors and differences among states for several crop density-cancer associations. However, some of these analyses were limited by low crop prevalence and low cancer incidence.ConclusionsPublicly available data sources not originally intended to be used for health research can be useful for generating hypotheses about environmental exposures and health outcomes. The associations observed in this study need to be confirmed by analytic epidemiologic studies using individual level exposure data and accounting for potential confounders that could not be taken into account in this ecologic study.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12940-015-0070-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

There is limited epidemiologic evidence that exposure to agricultural pesticides, mainly through parental occupational exposures, is associated with an increased risks of childhood leukemia and childhood central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS) cancers [1,2,3,4]
A total of 664 cases of leukemia (518 acute lymphoid leukemias (ALL) and 94 acute myeloid leukemias (AML)) and 691 cases of CNS/PNS (315 CNS and 218 PNS) cancers among an average annual population of 1,639,649 children less than five years of age were included in the study (Table 1)
In Michigan, we found statistically significant positive associations between density of dry beans, oats, and sugar beets and total leukemias and ALL (RRLeukemia 1 % = 1.01, 95 % confidence intervals (CI) = 1.00–1.02; RRLeukemia 1 % = 1.19, 95 % CI = 1.03–1.37; RRLeukemia 1 % = 1.01, 95 % CI = 1.01–1.02, respectively) (Additional file 1: Table S4)

Summary

Introduction

There is limited epidemiologic evidence that exposure to agricultural pesticides, mainly through parental occupational exposures, is associated with an increased risks of childhood leukemia and childhood central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS) cancers [1,2,3,4]. A few studies have examined crop density (i.e. the percentage of land planted in crops) around the birth or childhood residence as a surrogate for environmental exposure to agricultural pesticides and risk of these childhood cancers [5,6,7]. In California, residences with higher density of specific agricultural pesticides within 1250 m of the home had significantly higher concentrations of the pesticide within the home compared to homes without use of the pesticide within 1250 m [12]. Concentrations of specific herbicides in house dust have been associated with increased risk of childhood ALL [13]. Few studies have examined the density of agricultural land use as a surrogate for residential exposure to agricultural pesticides and results are mixed. We examined the association of county level agricultural land use and the incidence of specific childhood cancers

Methods

Results

Conclusion