No abstract

Pollution comes from activities that man performs at all levels. Many of the polluting substances do not have immediate action on health and cause long-term chronic diseases such as cancer. An important contribution in oral cancer research is to study the relationships between space and community health. The Geographic Information Systems constitute a computer set (software and hardware) that allows analyzing geographic and spatial data such as events, people and environmental characteristics. The objective of the study was to determine the spatial distribution of patients with oral cancer and other oral lesions, using Geographic Information Systems and establish possible association with the presence of different types of industries in the City of Córdoba. Methods:Retrospective study of clinical histories of patients of both sexes (n = 476), who attended the External Clinic of the Chair of Stomatology "A" of the Faculty of Dentistry (UNC), period 2008 -2014. The lesions were grouped into: benign, potentially malignant oral disorders (leucoplasias and oral lichens) and oral cancer. The patients were geolocated, by spatial localization of geographic coordinates, according to the address declared in the Clinical History. The industries were classified as Harmful and Dangerous. Planar type maps were elaborated with the program ArcGis 10.1, Esri. The statistics were performed using absolute and relative frequencies. The association between industrial zones and the presence of lesions was evaluated through Correspondence Analysis. Results: There was an association between the presence of non-malignant lesions with dangerous industries and malignant lesions with harmful industries. Areas with dangerous and harmful industries were associated with the presence of potentially malignant disorders. Discussion: Our results allowed us to determine environmental risk patterns in the city of Córdoba, which could be applied to analyze and / or solve different aspects of public health in relation to oral cancer.