Paternal Occupational Exposures and Childhood Cancer

The objective of the study described here was to test the hypothesis that paternal occupational exposure near conception increases the risk of cancer in the offspring. We conducted a cohort study based on a population of 235,635 children born shortly after two different censuses in Sweden. The child...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental health perspectives 2001-02, Vol.109 (2), p.193-196
Main Authors: Feychting, Maria, Plato, Nils, Nise, Gun, Ahlbom, Anders
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Agroforestry
Cancer
Censuses
Chemical hazards
Child
Childhood
Children
Cohort Studies
Commentary
Humans
Leukemia
Leukemia - chemically induced
Leukemia - epidemiology
Male
Mechanical engineering
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Nervous system neoplasms
Nervous System Neoplasms - chemically induced
Nervous System Neoplasms - epidemiology
Occupational Exposure - adverse effects
paternal effects
Paternal Exposure - adverse effects
Pesticides
Proportional Hazards Models
Risk Assessment
Sweden
Sweden - epidemiology
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Summary:The objective of the study described here was to test the hypothesis that paternal occupational exposure near conception increases the risk of cancer in the offspring. We conducted a cohort study based on a population of 235,635 children born shortly after two different censuses in Sweden. The children were followed from birth to 14 years, and cases of cancer were identified in the Swedish Cancer Registry. Occupational hygienists assessed the probability of exposure to different agents in each combination of the father's industry and occupation as reported in the censuses. We also analyzed individual job titles. We compared the cancer incidence among children of exposed fathers to that among children of unexposed fathers using Cox proportional hazards modeling. The main findings were an increased risk of nervous system tumors related to paternal occupational exposure to pesticides [relative risk (RR) = 2.36; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.27-4.39] and work as a painter (RR = 3.65; 95% CI, 1.71-7.80), and an increased risk of leukemia related to wood work by fathers (RR = 2.18; 95% CI, 1.26-3.78). We found no associations between childhood leukemia and paternal exposure to pesticides or paint. Our results support previous findings of an increased risk of childhood brain tumors and leukemia associated with certain paternal occupational exposures. Some findings in previous studies were not confirmed in this study.
ISSN:0091-6765
1552-9924
DOI:10.1289/ehp.01109193