A case-control study of childhood brain cancer and drinking water contamination.

摘要

etal exposure to chemical carcinogens may play an important role in childhood brain cancer. Common chemical contaminants in drinking water (including trihalomethanes, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene) or their metabolites are mutagenic and/or carcinogenic in laboratory animals, and can cross the placenta and accumulate in fatty tissues such as the fetal brain. Studies of childhood brain cancer in relation to fetal (or parental) exposure to these chemicals through sources other than drinking water, and studies of drinking water contaminant exposure that suggest an increase in risk of brain cancer among adults and other childhood diseases, provide reason to test the hypothesis that maternal exposure to these common drinking water contaminants around the time of the child's birth is a risk factor for later development of brain cancer.;The source population for this study was all New Jersey births in the period 1978 through 1988 whose mother's address was served by a public water system. Cases (n = 166) from the source population were New Jersey residents diagnosed with a primary brain cancer in the period 1979 through 1991. Controls (n = 906) were randomly selected from the source population. A geographic information system (GIS) was used to map subject addresses and the boundaries of 484 public water systems, linked to a time- and system-specific contaminant database. Information on potential confounders was extracted from subject birth certificates.;Based on 14 exposed cases, the odds ratio (OR) for all brain cancer cases was elevated for trichloroethylene exposure