Exposure to armament wastes and leukemia: a case-control study within a cluster of AML and CML in Germany

An unusually high incidence of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic mye loid leukemia (CML) concentrated in a specific locality of a region in Germ any motivated a descriptive incidence study in that region which showed a n ear 10-fold increased risk of CML among males but not among females (Kolb G , Becker N, Scheller S, Zugmaier G, Pralle H, Wahrendorf J, Havemann K. Inc reased risk of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and chronic myelogenous leu kemia (CML) in a County of Hesse, Germany, Soc Prev Med 1993;38:190-195). S ince a serious environmental contamination of areas in this locality with a rmament wastes containing toluene-derivatives has been known for a long tim e, the hypothesis arose that TNT production and the related severe contamin ation of soil and water might be responsible for the observed higher risk. We carried out a case-control study within the cluster to test this hypothe sis. Overall, the results do not confirm the hypothesis. There is an indica tion of a relationship of an increased odds ratio with the exposure for a s mall group of persons who lived at a particular site in one of the two comm unities involved during the peak phase of TNT production during the 1940s. However, this finding is spurious and cannot explain the large majority of cases which occurred in that area in the 1980s. At the moment, no other exp lanation can be given for the increased risk of leukemias in that area. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.