Abstract
BackgroundPesticide exposure is a suspected risk factor for childhood cancer. We investigated the risk of developing childhood cancer in relation to parental occupational exposure to pesticides in Switzerland for the period 1990–2015.MethodsFrom a nationwide census-based cohort study in Switzerland, we included children aged < 16 years at national censuses of 1990 and 2000 and followed them until 2015. We extracted parental occupations reported at the census closest to the birth year of the child and estimated exposure to pesticides using a job exposure matrix. Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for potential confounders, were fitted for the following outcomes: any cancer, leukaemia, central nervous system tumours (CNST), lymphoma, non-CNS solid tumours.ResultsAnalyses of maternal (paternal) exposure were based on approximately 15.9 (15.1) million-person years at risk and included 1891 (1808) cases of cancer, of which 532 (503) were leukaemia, 348 (337) lymphomas, 423 (399) CNST, and 588 (569) non-CNS solid tumours. The prevalence of high likelihood of exposure was 2.9% for mothers and 6.7% for fathers. No evidence of an association was found with maternal or paternal exposure for any of the outcomes, except for “non-CNS solid tumours” (High versus None; Father: adjusted HR [95%CI] =1.84 [1.31–2.58]; Mother: 1.79 [1.13–2.84]). No evidence of an association was found for main subtypes of leukaemia and lymphoma. A post-hoc analysis on frequent subtypes of “non-CNS solid tumours” showed positive associations with wide CIs for some cancers.ConclusionOur study suggests an increased risk for solid tumours other than in the CNS among children whose parents were occupationally exposed to pesticides; however, the small numbers of cases limited a closer investigation of cancer subtypes. Better exposure assessment and pooled studies are needed to further explore a possible link between specific childhood cancers types and parental occupational exposure to pesticides.
Highlights
Pesticide exposure is a suspected risk factor for childhood cancer
We investigated the risk of childhood cancer and its main diagnostic groups following parental occupational exposure to pesticides in a nationwide census-based cohort in Switzerland
We separately investigated following outcomes: Any cancer; leukaemia (ICCC-3 main diagnostic group I); lymphoid leukaemia (LL) (ICCC-3 diagnostic group I a); acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) (ICCC-3 diagnostic group I b); lymphoma (ICCC-3 main diagnostic group II); Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) (ICCC-3 diagnostic group II b and c); Hodgkin lymphoma (ICCC-3 diagnostic group II a); central nervous system (CNST) (ICCC-3 main diagnostic group III; this includes tumours of non-malignant or uncertain behaviour) and non-CNS solid tumours (ICCC-3 main diagnostic groups IV to XII)
Summary
Pesticide exposure is a suspected risk factor for childhood cancer. We investigated the risk of developing childhood cancer in relation to parental occupational exposure to pesticides in Switzerland for the period 1990–2015. The causes of childhood cancers are still largely unknown. Rare, they constitute the most common disease-related cause of death among children in many high income countries including Switzerland [1]. Certain genetic disorders, including DNA repair disorders, as well as exposure to chemotherapy are known to increase the risk of certain types of childhood cancers [2, 3]. Numerous environmental risk factors have been suspected to contribute to the risk of childhood cancer including exposure to pesticides [2, 4]. Certain pesticides have been classified as carcinogenic to human by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) [6,7,8]
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