Perfluorooctanoic Acid Exposure and Cancer Outcomes in a Contaminated Community: A Geographic Analysis.

Source

Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; and Program in Public Health, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Irvine, California, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has been linked to cancer in occupational mortality studies and animal toxicological research.

OBJECTIVE:

We investigated the relationship between PFOA exposure and cancer among residents living near the DuPont plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia (WV).

METHODS:

Our analyses included incident cases of 18 cancers diagnosed from 1996-2005 in five Ohio (OH) counties and eight WV counties. For analyses of each cancer outcome, controls comprised all other cancers in the study dataset except kidney, pancreatic, testicular, and liver cancers, which have been associated with PFOA in animal or human studies. We applied logistic regression models to individual-level data to calculate odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (CI). For the combined analysis of WV and OH data, the exposure of interest was resident water district. Within OH, geocoded addresses were integrated with a PFOA exposure model to examine the relationship between cancer odds and categories of estimated PFOA serum.

RESULTS:

Our final dataset included 7,869 OH cases and 17,238 WV cases. There was a positive association between kidney cancer and the very high and high serum exposure categories (OR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.0, 3.9; n=9 and OR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.3, 3.2; n=22, respectively) and a null association with the other exposure categories compared to the unexposed. The largest OR was for testicular cancer with the very high exposure category (OR: 2.8, 95% CI: 0.8, 9.2; n=6) but there was an inverse association with the lower exposure groups, and all estimates are imprecise because of small case numbers.

CONCLUSIONS:

This study suggests that higher PFOA serum levels may be associated with testicular, kidney, prostate, and ovarian cancers and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Strengths of this study include near-complete case ascertainment for state residents, and well characterized contrasts in predicted PFOA serum levels from 6 contaminated water supplies. ?

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/23308854?dopt=Abstract

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