1. Parental occupation and intracranial neoplasms of childhood: anecdotal evidence from a unique occupational cancer cluster.
- Author
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Wilkins JR 3rd, McLaughlin JA, Sinks TH, and Kosnik EJ
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Barbiturates, Brain Neoplasms epidemiology, Case-Control Studies, Child, Child, Preschool, Environmental Monitoring, Epidemiological Monitoring, Female, Humans, Incidence, Infant, Male, Maternal-Fetal Exchange, Ohio epidemiology, Phenobarbital, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Complications epidemiology, Risk Factors, Solvents analysis, Space-Time Clustering, Survival Rate, X-Rays, Brain Neoplasms etiology, Electronics, Family Health, Occupational Exposure
- Abstract
Near the end of the data-collection phase of a case-control interview study of environmental factors and childhood brain tumors, an unusual space-time cluster was revealed. Not only had six genetically unrelated children been diagnosed with a primary intracranial tumor in a recent 2.4 year period in a rural county in Ohio, but each child had one parent employed by the same company (two mothers, four fathers). This represents an observed/expected ratio greater than 70 (p much less than 0.001). All tumors were microscopically confirmed, and all case parents worked at the facility in question for at least 1 year prior to conception, during the index pregnancy, and for at least 6 months after birth. The place of parental employment was an electronics firm (Standard Industrial Classification [SIC] group number 367, electronic components and accessories), where more than 100 chemical compounds are used by the company in a manufacturing process. Results of the cluster investigation are described, including a description of the case series. This cancer cluster is unique in that the index case series is composed of the offspring of workers, not the workers themselves.
- Published
- 1991
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