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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on September 28, 2005

American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwi294
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2005 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Received June 24, 2004
Accepted June 3, 2005

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Parental Occupational Exposure to Pesticides and Childhood Germ-Cell Tumors

Zhi Chen 1, Patricia A. Stewart 2, Stella Davies 3, Roger Giller 4, Mark Krailo 5, Mary Davis 6, Leslie Robison 7, and Xiao-Ou Shu 1*

1 Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and Center for Health Services Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
2 Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
3 Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH
4 The Children's Hospital, Denver, CO
5 Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
6 Division of Pediatric Pathology, Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis, IN
7 Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Xiao-Ou Shu, E-mail: Xiao-Ou.Shu{at}vanderbilt.edu


   Abstract

In a recently completed US case-control study (Children's Oncology Group, 1993-2001) with 253 cases and 394 controls, the authors investigated the association between parental occupational exposure to pesticides and risk of childhood germ-cell tumors. Information on occupational pesticide exposure was collected using job-specific module questionnaires and assessed by an experienced industrial hygienist. Odds ratios for childhood germ-cell tumors associated with maternal exposures before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and after the birth of the index child were 1.0 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.8, 1.4), 1.1 (95% CI: 0.7, 1.6), and 1.3 (95% CI: 0.9, 1.8), respectively. Paternal exposures before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and after the birth of the index child were not related to germ-cell tumors (odds ratios (ORs) were 0.9 (95% CI: 0.7, 1.2), 0.8 (95% CI: 0.5, 1.2), and 0.8 (95% CI: 0.5, 1.3), respectively). When both parents had ever been occupationally exposed to pesticides before the index pregnancy, the odds ratio was 0.8 (95% CI: 0.4, 1.3). Subgroup analyses showed a positive association between maternal exposure to herbicides during the postnatal period and risk of germ-cell tumors in girls (OR = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.0, 5.2) and an inverse association between paternal exposure to pesticides during the index pregnancy and germ-cell tumors in boys (OR = 0.2, 95% CI: 0.1, 1.0). This study did not provide strong evidence supporting a relation between parental pesticide exposure in the workplace and risk of germ-cell tumors among offspring.

Keywords: case-control studies; child; germinoma; occupational exposure; pesticides.
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