title: Cancer mortality in towns in the vicinity of incinerators and installations for the recovery or disposal of hazardous waste.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Waste treatment plants release toxic emissions into the environment which affect neighboring towns.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether there might be excess cancer mortality in towns situated in the vicinity of Spanish-based incinerators and installations for the recovery or disposal of hazardous waste, according to the different categories of industrial activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  An ecologic study was designed to examine municipal mortality due to 33 types of cancer, across the period 1997-2006. Population exposure to pollution was estimated on the basis of distance from town of residence to pollution source. Using Besag-York-Mollié (BYM) regression models with Integrated Nested Laplace approximations for Bayesian inference, and Mixed Poisson regression models, we assessed the risk of dying from cancer in a 5-kilometer zone around installations, analyzed the effect of category of industrial activity, and conducted individual analyses within a 50-kilometer radius of each installation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Excess cancer mortality (BYM model: relative risk, 95% credible interval) was detected in the total population residing in the vicinity of these installations as a whole (1.06, 1.04-1.09), and, principally, in the vicinity of incinerators (1.09, 1.01-1.18) and scrap metal/end-of-life vehicle handling facilities, in particular (1.04, 1.00-1.09). Special mention should be made of the results for tumors of the pleura (1.71, 1.34-2.14), stomach (1.18, 1.10-1.27), liver (1.18, 1.06-1.30), kidney (1.14, 1.04-1.23), ovary (1.14, 1.05-1.23), lung (1.10, 1.05-1.15), leukemia (1.10, 1.03-1.17), colon-rectum (1.08, 1.03-1.13) and bladder (1.08, 1.01-1.16) in the vicinity of all such installations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results support the hypothesis of a statistically significant increase in the risk of dying from cancer in towns near incinerators and installations for the recovery or disposal of hazardous waste.
authors.affiliation: Cancer and Environmental Epidemiology Unit, National Center for Epidemiology, Carlos III Institute of Health, Avda. Monforte de Lemos, 5, 28029 Madrid, Spain. jgarcia@isciii.es
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: García-Pérez
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fernández-Navarro
authors.forename: Adela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Castelló
authors.forename: María Felicitas
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: López-Cima
authors.forename: Rebeca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramis
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boldo
authors.forename: Gonzalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: López-Abente
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006256:Hazardous Waste / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D017745:Incineration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007221:Industry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D013030:Spain; D014866:Waste Products / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D006256:Hazardous Waste; D014866:Waste Products