Non Hodgkin's lymphoma risk and past dioxin emissions from municipal solid waste incinerators
Dioxin emissions from municipal solid waste incinerators are one of the major sources of dioxins and therefore are an exposure source of public concern. There is growing epidemiologic evidence of an increased risk for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in the vicinity of some municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) with high dioxin emission levels.
The purpose of this study was to examine this association on a larger population scale.
Methods: The study area consisted of four French departments, comprising a total of 2270 block groups. Cases that had been diagnosed during the period 1990-1999, and were aged >18 years, were considered.
Each case was assigned a block group by residential address geocoding. Atmospheric Dispersion Model System (ADMS3) software was used to estimate immissions in the surroundings of 13 incinerators which operated in the study area.
Then, cumulative ground-level dioxin concentrations were calculated for each block group. Poisson multiple regression models, incorporating penalized regression splines to control for covariates, were used with block group as the statistical unit.
Results: A total of 3974 NHL incident cases was observed (2147 among males, and 1827 among females) during the 1990-1999 time period.
A statistically significant relationship was found at the block group level between NHL incidence and dioxin exposure, with a relative risk (RR) of 1.120 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.003 - 1.250) for persons living in highly exposed census blocks compared to those living in slightly exposed block groups. Post-hoc subgroup analyses per gender yielded a significant RR for females only (RR=1.187, 95% CI 1.020 - 1.382).
Conclusions: This study adds further evidence to the link between NHL incidence and exposure to dioxins emitted by MSWIs.
However, the findings of this study cannot be extrapolated to current MSWIs, which emit lower amounts of pollutants than past MSWIs.
Author: Jean-Francois Viel, Come Daniau, Sarah Goria, Pascal Fabre, Perrine de Crouy-Chanel, Erik-Andre Sauleau and Pascal Empereur-Bissonnet
Credits/Source: Environmental Health 2008, 7:51
Published on: 2008-10-28
Copyright by the authors listed above - made available via BioMedCentral (Open Access). Please
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