Abstract
Medical geology research has recognised a number of potentially toxic elements (PTEs), such as arsenic, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, vanadium, uranium and zinc, known to influence human disease by their respective deficiency or toxicity. As the impact of infectious diseases has decreased and the population ages, so cancer has become the most common cause of death in developed countries including Northern Ireland. This research explores the relationship between environmental exposure to potentially toxic elements in soil and cancer disease data across Northern Ireland. The incidences of twelve different cancer types (lung, stomach, leukaemia, oesophagus, colorectal, bladder, kidney, breast, mesothelioma, melanoma and non melanoma (NM) skin cancer both basal and squamous) were examined in the form of twenty-five coded datasets comprising aggregates over the 12 year period from 1993 to 2006. A local modelling technique, geographically weighted regression (GWR) is used to explore the relationship between environmental exposure and cancer disease data. The results show comparisons of the geographical incidence of certain cancers (stomach and NM squamous skin cancer) in relation to concentrations of certain PTEs (arsenic levels in soils and radon were identified). Findings from the research have implications for regional human health risk assessments.
Highlights
This research explores the relationship between environmental exposure to potentially toxic elements in soil and cancer disease data across Northern Ireland
The key opportunities stem firstly from Northern Ireland’s complex geology (Fig. 1a) that forms a microcosm for that encountered across the UK and Ireland and secondly from the combination of available data sources: comprehensive soil geochemistry data generated by Geological Survey Northern Ireland (GSNI) Tellus Survey and cancer data collected from 1993 onwards and maintained by Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR)
Output maps are provided for age standardised incidence rates (ASIRs) for stomach cancer, lung and non melanoma (NM) squamous skin cancer and these results are discussed in more detail
Summary
Medical geology or spatial epidemiology is concerned with the study of spatial patterns of disease incidence and mortality and the identification of potential causes of disease including environmental exposure or socio-demographic factors (Goovaerts, 2010). The culmination of a broad body of research has recognised a number of potentially toxic elements (PTEs), such as arsenic (As), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), selenium (Se), vanadium (V), uranium (U) and zinc (Zn), known to influence human disease by their respective deficiency or toxicity. The risk of developing cancer is recognised as a combination of the person’s genetic makeup and environmental factors usually over long periods of time. Investigating the geographical differences in cancer incidence may shed light on variations in cancer risk factors between populations (Carsin et al, 2009)
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