Parental occupation and other factors and cancer risk tn children: II. Occupational factors

A population-based case-control study was conducted on 593 cancer cases in children from 0 to 14 years of age diagnosed in Moscow from 1986 to 1988, T he study included 1181 healthy controls matched by age, gender and residenc e. Parental exposures prior to conception, including exposures to petroleum products, organic solvents, unspecified chemicals, soldering aerosols, ion izing radiation, electromagnetic fields (EMF), visual display units (VDU) a nd high temperature in the work environment, were significantly more freque nt among the cases than among the controls (p < 0.05). Leukemia risk was as sociated with paternal exposure to ionizing radiation [odds ratio (OR) 6.7; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.8-15.8], EMF (OR 4.6; 95% CI 1.8-11.9), VDU (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.0-5.8) and unspecified chemicals (OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.02-4. 1), Leukemia risk was also higher when mothers were exposed to solvents (OR 3.1; 95% CI 1.5-6.3), unspecified chemicals (OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.0-4.3), ioni zing radiation (OR 10.3; 95% CI 1.3-83.4) and EMF (OR 5.2; 95% CI 1.6-16.8) . Increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was shown to be related to mater nal exposure to oil products (OR 3.3; 95% CI 1.01-10.7) and unspecified che micals (OR 3.3; 95% CI 1.01-10.7). Exposure to VDU was found to be associat ed with increased risk of neuroblastoma (6/1: OR 13.8: 95% CI 1.9-100.0). ( C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.