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Exposure to Industrial Air Toxics and Risk of Breast Cancer in California: The Multiethnic Cohort Study
Darcy Van Deventer1, Sungshim Lani Park, Iona Cheng
1From the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, California (D.V.D., Y.C., B.R., J.E.H.); Epidemiology Section, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Honolulu, Hawaii (S.L.P., L.L.M.); San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco, California (I.C., J.Y.); Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California (I.C.); Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California (A.H.W., D.O.S.); and School of Health Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas (J.E.H.).
Objective:
Estimate breast cancer risk associated with residential industrial air pollutant exposure.
Methods:
We analyzed 53,313 women in the California Multiethnic Cohort (1993-1996) for associations between 15 industrial pollutants and breast cancer incidence. Using Environmental Protection Agency Toxic Release Inventory data, sites were linked to geocoded residential histories via quadratic decay models to estimate 5-year lagged exposures. Cox models calculated risk per interquartile range increase, stratified by race/ethnicity and hormone receptor status.
Results:
Increased risk was associated with dichloromethane (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.17, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05-1.29), tetrachloroethylene (HR = 1.53, CI: 1.39-1.69), 1,1,1-trichloroethane (HR = 1.77, CI: 1.65-1.91), diethanolamine (HR = 1.06, CI: 0.98-1.15), lead (HR = 1.02, CI: 1.00-1.03), and methyl ethyl ketone (HR = 1.27, CI: 1.15-1.41). Formaldehyde was associated only with hormone receptor-negative tumors (HR = 1.44, CI: 1.15-1.73).
Conclusions:
Residential exposure to certain industrial pollutants may increase breast cancer risk.
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