Hazard proximities of childhood cancers in Great Britain from 1953-80.

Abstract

Study objectives -Firstly, to examine relationships between the birth and death addresses of children dying from leukaemia and cancer in Great Britain, and the sites of potential environmental hazards; and secondly to measure relative case densities close to, and at increasing distances from, different hazard types. Design -Home address postcodes (PCs) and their map coordinates were identified at birth and at death in children who died from leukaemia or cancer. Potentially hazardous industrial addresses and PCs were listed from business and other directories, and map coordinates obtained from the Central Postcode Directory or else located directly on Ordnance Survey (OS) maps. Railway lines and motorways were digitised from OS maps. Numbers of deaths (and births) at successive radial distances from these hazards were counted and compared with expected numbers. The latter were based on a count of all PCs at similar distances. Relative case density ratios at successive distances from the hazards were obtained from observed and expected numbers, aggregated over similar sites. This was repeated for different hazard types and results were tested for evidence of systematic centrifugal case density gradients. Participants and setting -All 22 458 children dying from leukaemia or cancer aged 0-15 years, in England, Wales, and Scotland, between 1953 and 1980. Main results -Relative excesses of leukaemias and of solid cancers were found near the following: (1) oil refineries, major oil storage installations, railside oil distribution terminals and factories making bitumen products; (2) motor car factories, coach builders, and car body repairers; (3) major users of petroleum products including manufacturers of solvents, paint sprayers, fibreglass fabricators, paint and varnish makers, plastics and detergent manufacturers, and galvanisers; (4) users ofkilns and furnaces including steelworks, power stations, galvanizers, cement makers, brickworks, crematoria and aluminium, zinc, and iron/steel foundries; (5) airfields, railways, motorways and harbours. The findings for leukaemias and for solid cancers were indistinguishable. The hazard proximities ofbirth addresses were stronger than for death addresses. For children who had moved house between birth and death, the proximity effect was limited to the birth addresses. Conclusions -Childhood cancers are geographically associated with two main types ofindustrial atmospheric effluent namely: (1) petroleum derived volatiles and (2) kiln and furnace smoke and gases, and effluents from internal combustion engines. Our previous studies showed that childhood leukaemias and cancers occurred in small geographical clusters.'2 Among 9411 childhood registrations of leukaemia and lymphoma in Great Britain between 1966 and 1983, for whom we knew the residential postcode (PC) coordinates, there were 264 case pairs/triplets who were separated by less than 150 m; and in England and Wales there were 520 registration pairs who shared a common census enumeration district (ED). Among 22 458...

Geographical distribution of birth places of children with cancer in the UK

“…Muirhead (1995) (1990) who estimated that up to 15% of childhood cancers could be attributed to an average radon exposure of 50 Bq m-3. At these levels of exposure, the proportion of cases likely to be due to radon exposure is similar to that associated with childhood cancer risk after irradiation of the fetus in utero by radiography of the abdomen of the pregnant mother (Stewart et al, 1958;Bithell and Stewart, 1975;Muirhead and Kneale, 1989 (Knox and Gilman, 1997). The apparent inconsistency of our present findings is possibly because of the inability of analysis at the larger scale of 10-km squares to detect the short-range effects of local discrete hazards.…”

Traffic density in California: Socioeconomic and ethnic differences among potentially exposed children

“…Elevated risks of childhood cancer were associated with several surrogate measures of vehicle exhaust exposure, including traffic volume, car density, estimated concentration of nitrogen dioxide in outdoor air and proximity to sources of vehicle exhaust (Savitz and Feingold, 1989;Knox and Gilman, 1997;Nordlinder and Jarvholm, 1997;Feychting et al, 1998;Harrison et al, 1999;Pearson et al, 2000). Recent studies in California evaluating childhood cancer and traffic density have generally found no association (Reynolds et al, 2001;Langholz et al, 2002;Reynolds et al, 2002).…”

A biomarker approach to estimate the daily intake of benzene in non-smoking and smoking individuals in Germany

“…Continuous long-term exposure to low environmental concentrations of benzene is an issue of special public health concern, as several investigations so far reported positive associations between residence near potential hydrocarbon emission sources (e.g., oil raffineries) or indicators of automotive emissions and acute childhood leukaemia (Knox, 1994;Lyons et al, 1995;Sans et al, 1995;Knox and Gilman, 1997;Harrison et al, 1999;Wilkinson et al, 1999). Moreover, five out of six case-control studies showed a positive association between different indicators of air pollution or heavy traffic in the vicinity of children's homes and acute leukaemia (Savitz and Feingold, 1989;Nordlinder and Jarvholm, 1997;Feychting et al, 1998;Harrison et al, 1999;Pearson et al, 2000;Raaschou-Nielsen et al, 2001;Langholz et al, 2002;Crosignani et al, 2004), whereas in three of these studies, this association turned out to be significant (Nordlinder and Jarvholm, 1997;Pearson et al, 2000;Crosignani et al, 2004).…”