Maternal residential pesticide use and risk of childhood leukemia in Costa Rica

Abstract

Evidence suggests that early‐life exposure to pesticides inside the home may be associated with childhood leukemia, however data from Latin American countries are limited. We examined whether self‐reported maternal residential pesticide use and nearby pesticide applications–before and after child's birth–were associated with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in the Costa Rican Childhood Leukemia Study (CRCLS), a population‐based case‐control study (2001‐2003). Cases (n = 251 ALL) were diagnosed between 1995 and 2000 (age <15 years at diagnosis) and were identified through the Costa Rican Cancer Registry and National Children's Hospital. Population controls (n = 577) were drawn from the National Birth Registry. We fitted unconditional logistic regression models adjusted for child sex, birth year, and socioeconomic status to estimate the exposure‐outcome associations and also stratified by child sex. We observed that self‐reported maternal insecticide use inside the home in the year before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and while breastfeeding was associated with increased odds of ALL among boys [adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR) = 1.63 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.05–2.53), 1.75 (1.13–2.73), and 1.75 (1.12–2.73), respectively. We also found evidence of exposure‐response relationships between more frequent maternal insecticide use inside the home and increased odds of ALL among boys and girls combined. Maternal report of pesticide applications on farms or companies near the home during pregnancy and at any time period were also associated with ALL. Our study in Costa Rica highlights the need for education to minimize pesticide exposures inside and around the home, particularly during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Association of Parental, Child, and Environmental Factors with the Occurrence of Childhood Leukemia in Upper Egypt

“…(17,20,45) Consistent with these studies, a Costa Rican case-control study found an association between elevated childhood leukemia incidence and maternal insecticide use in the home and pesticide spraying on nearby farms before and after the child's birth. (46) An Italian case-control study showed an increase in leukemia risk among children residing close to arable crops. This study emphasized the need for further investigations into the role of passive exposure to herbicides and pyrethroids in disease occurrence in the majority of cases.…”

Organophosphate toxicity: updates of malathion potential toxic effects in mammals and potential treatments

“…Occupational exposure was also correlated with increased risk of prostate cancer in Canada (Band et al 2011). Furthermore, it was reported that in-utero environmental exposure to pesticides is associated with the development of childhood leukemia (Ferri et al 2018;Hyland et al 2018).…”

Disparities in acute lymphoblastic leukemia risk and survival across the lifespan in the United States of America

“…Non-genetic factors also contribute to ALL risk; for example, there is strong epidemiological evidence supporting a role for early life infections and modulation of the developing immune system in childhood ALL etiology, which has been reviewed in detail elsewhere [45] . Studies have also reported modest associations for childhood ALL risk with several environmental exposures [46] , including tobacco smoke [47][48][49] , pesticides [50,51] , paint [52,53] , and air pollution [54][55][56] . The vast majority of epidemiologic studies for ALL have been conducted in children, and very little is known regarding potential differences in ALL etiology across age groups.…”