| Chlorination Disinfection By-products and Pancreatic Cancer Risk Minh T. Do,1 Nicholas J. Birkett,2,3 Kenneth
C. Johnson,4,* Daniel Krewski,2,3 Paul Villeneuve,1,5 and
the Canadian Cancer Registries Epidemiology Research Group** 1Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada; 2Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine,
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 3McLaughlin Centre
for Population Health Risk Assessment, Institute of Population Health, University
of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 4Population and Public Health
Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 5Epistream Consulting
Inc., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Abstract
Chlorination disinfection by-products (CDBPs) are produced during the treatment of water with chlorine to remove bacterial contamination. CDBPs have been associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. There is also some evidence that they may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer. We report results from a population-based case-control study of 486 incident cases of pancreatic cancer and 3,596 age- and sex-matched controls. Exposure to chlorination by-products was estimated by linking lifetime residential histories to two different databases containing information on CDBP levels in municipal water supplies. Logistic regression analysis found no evidence of increased pancreatic cancer risk at higher CDBP concentrations (all odds ratios < 1.3) . Null findings were also obtained assuming a latency period for pancreatic cancer induction of 3, 8, or 13 years. Key words: chlorination by-products, drinking water, pancreatic cancer, THMs. Environ Health Perspect 113:418-424 (2005) . doi:10.1289/ehp.7403 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 10 January 2005]
Address correspondence to N. Birkett, Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1H 8M5. Telephone: (613) 562-5800 ext. 8289. Fax: (613) 562-5465. E-mail: nbirkett@uottawa.ca *Current address: Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. **The Canadian Cancer Registries Epidemiology Research Group consists of a principal investigator from each of the Provincial Cancer Registries: Bertha Paulse, Newfoundland Cancer Foundation ; Ron Dewar, Nova Scotia Cancer Registry ; Dagny Dryer, Prince Edward Island Cancer Registry ; Nancy Kreiger, Cancer Care Ontario ; Erich Kliewer, CancerCare Manitoba ; Diane Robson, Saskatchewan Cancer Foundation ; Shirley Fincham, Division of Epidemiology, Prevention and Screening, Alberta Cancer Board ; and Nhu Le, British Columbia Cancer Agency. The National Enhanced Cancer Surveillance System was a collaboration of the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Health Canada and the Canadian Cancer Registries Epidemiology Research Group. We thank W. King, Queen’s University, for assistance in collating the exposure data. This work was completed while M.T.D. was a graduate student in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa. M.T.D. was supported by a National Population Health Research and Development Training Fellowship from Health Canada. D.K. is the National Science, Engineering and Research Council/Social Science and Humanities Research Council/McLaughlin Chair in Population Health Risk Assessment at the University of Ottawa. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 9 July 2004 ; accepted 10 January 2005. An erratum was published in Environ Health Perspect 113:A511 (2005) . The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
