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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on June 5, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwj182
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Received January 25, 2005
Accepted June 1, 2005

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Residential Exposure to Petrochemicals and the Risk of Leukemia: Using Geographic Information System Tools to Estimate Individual-Level Residential Exposure

Chu-Ling Yu 1, Su-Fen Wang 2, Pi-Chen Pan 3, Ming-Tsang Wu 3, Chi-Kung Ho 3, Thomas J. Smith 4, Yi Li 5, Lucille Pothier 1, David C. Christiani 6 *, and the Kaohsiung Leukemia Research Group

1 Occupational Health Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
2 Department of Geography, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua City, Taiwan, Republic of China
3 School of Public Health, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China
4 Exposure, Epidemiology, and Risk Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
5 Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
6 Occupational Health Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA; Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
David C. Christiani, E-mail: dchristi{at}hsph.harvard.edu


  Abstract

The authors conducted a population-based, case-control study in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, Republic of China, to investigate the association between residential petrochemical exposure and leukemia risk among subjects 29 years of age and younger. Between November 1997 and June 2003, 171 cases and 410 controls matched for age and sex were recruited. Since assessment of petrochemical impacts depends on accurate exposure estimates, the authors developed a procedure using geographic information system tools to assign subjects' exposure. The resulting individual-level exposure estimates (the exposure opportunity score) are an integrated exposure measure that accounts for subjects' mobility, length of stay at each residence, distance to petrochemical plant(s), monthly prevailing wind direction, and multiple petrochemical pollution sources. Different conditional logistic regression models were fitted for subjects aged 0-19 and 20-29 years to evaluate separately childhood versus adulthood leukemia. No overall association was observed for the younger age group. However, residential petrochemical exposure was a significant risk factor for leukemia for the older age group. For one unit of increase in the log-transformed exposure opportunity score, the adjusted odds ratio was 1.54 (95 percent confidence interval: 1.14, 2.09). This study illustrates the utility of geographic information system tools for providing refined exposure estimates for residential exposure to petrochemical pollution.

Keywords: environmental exposure; environmental pollution; leukemia.
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