title: Cancer incidence among pesticide applicators exposed to alachlor in the Agricultural Health Study.
abstract: The authors evaluated the incidence of cancer among pesticide applicators with exposure to alachlor in the Agricultural Health Study, a prospective cohort study of licensed pesticide applicators in Iowa and North Carolina. A total of 49,980 pesticide applicators are included in this analysis; 26,510 applicators (53%) reported use of alachlor on the enrollment questionnaire. Detailed pesticide exposure and other information were obtained from a self-administered questionnaire completed at the time of enrollment (1993-1997). Poisson regression analysis was used to evaluate the exposure-response relations between alachlor and cancer incidence controlled for the effects of potential confounding factors. A total of 1,466 incident malignant neoplasms were diagnosed during the study period, 1993-2000. Among alachlor-exposed applicators, the authors found a significant increasing trend for incidence of all lymphohematopoietic cancers associated with lifetime exposure-days (p for trend = 0.02) and intensity-weighted exposure-days (p for trend = 0.03) to alachlor. The risks of leukemia (rate ratio = 2.83, 95% confidence interval: 0.74, 10.9) and multiple myeloma (rate ratio = 5.66, 95% confidence interval: 0.70, 45.7) were increased among applicators in the highest alachlor exposure category. Our findings suggest a possible association between alachlor application and incidence of lymphohematopoietic cancers among applicators in the Agricultural Health Study.
authors.affiliation: Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, MD 20852, USA.
authors.forename: Won Jin
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jane A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hoppin
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.forename: Jay H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lubin
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dosemeci
authors.forename: Dale P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Sandler
authors.forename: Michael C R
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Alavanja
mesh_terms: D000081:Acetamides; D000328:Adult; D000382:Agricultural Workers' Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015984:Causality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006540:Herbicides; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007484:Iowa / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D000081:Acetamides; D006540:Herbicides; C000188:alachlor