Parental occupation and intracranial neoplasms of childhood: Anecdotal evidence from a unique occupational cancer cluster
✍ Scribed by Dr. J. R. Wilkins III; Judy A. McLaughlin; Thomas H. Sinks; Edward J. Kosnik
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1991
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 818 KB
- Volume
- 19
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0271-3586
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
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 >70 (p << 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.