Bladder cancer mortality in New Jersey counties, and relationship with selected environmental variables

Age-adjusted mortality rates for bladder cancer were calculated for the 21 New Jersey (NJ) counties (USA) during the period 1968-1977, and compared with the period 1950-1969, with the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) survey and with cancer mortality in the US 1973-1977. The county rates were also correlated with: the rates of low birth weight, birth defects, infant mortality; chemical waste disposal sites; annual per capital income; per cent of the population working in the chemical industries; density of population and urbanization indices of 21 NJ counties. Age-adjusted bladder cancer mortality rates in 95% of NJ counties were higher than national and SEER area rates. The overall NJ State rates for four subgroup populations were highly significantly (p less than 0.001) greater than the national rates. There was a statistically significant correlation between bladder and lung cancer mortality among females in 21 NJ counties which may suggest a common risk factor--namely cigarette smoking. There was no such correlation between bladder and lung cancer mortality among males. There was a statistically significant association between bladder cancer mortality in individual counties and the percentage of the adult population working in the chemical industries.