PURPOSE: Methyl bromide is a genotoxic soil fumigant with high acute toxicity, but unknown human carcinogenicity. Although many countries have reduced methyl bromide use because of its ozone depleting properties, some uses remain in the United States and other countries, warranting further investigation of human health effects. METHODS: We used Poisson regression to calculate rate ratios (RR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for associations between methyl bromide use and all cancers combined, as well as 12 specific sites, among 53,588 Agricultural Health Study pesticide applicators with follow-up from 1993 to 2007. We also evaluated interactions with a family history for four common cancers (prostate, lung, colon, and lymphohematopoietic). We categorized methyl bromide exposure based on lifetime days applied weighted by an intensity score. RESULTS: A total of 7,814 applicators (14.6 %) used methyl bromide, predominantly before enrollment. Based on 15 exposed cases, stomach cancer risk increased monotonically with increasing methyl bromide use (RR = 1.42; 95 % CI, 0.51-3.95 and RR = 3.13; 95 % CI, 1.25-7.80 for low and high use compared with no use; p (trend) = 0.02). No other sites displayed a significant monotonic pattern. Although we previously observed an association with prostate cancer (follow-up through 1999), the association did not persist with longer follow-up. We observed a nonsignificant elevated risk of prostate cancer with methyl bromide use among those with a family history of prostate cancer, but the interaction with a family history did not achieve statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide little evidence of methyl bromide associations with cancer risk for most sites examined; however, we observed a significant exposure-dependent increase in stomach cancer risk. Small numbers of exposed cases and declining methyl bromide use might have influenced our findings. Further study is needed in more recently exposed populations to expand on these results.
PURPOSE:Methyl bromide is a genotoxic soil fumigant with high acute toxicity, but unknown human carcinogenicity. Although many countries have reduced methyl bromide use because of its ozone depleting properties, some uses remain in the United States and other countries, warranting further investigation of human health effects. METHODS: We used Poisson regression to calculate rate ratios (RR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for associations between methyl bromide use and all cancers combined, as well as 12 specific sites, among 53,588 Agricultural Health Study pesticide applicators with follow-up from 1993 to 2007. We also evaluated interactions with a family history for four common cancers (prostate, lung, colon, and lymphohematopoietic). We categorized methyl bromide exposure based on lifetime days applied weighted by an intensity score. RESULTS: A total of 7,814 applicators (14.6 %) used methyl bromide, predominantly before enrollment. Based on 15 exposed cases, stomach cancer risk increased monotonically with increasing methyl bromide use (RR = 1.42; 95 % CI, 0.51-3.95 and RR = 3.13; 95 % CI, 1.25-7.80 for low and high use compared with no use; p (trend) = 0.02). No other sites displayed a significant monotonic pattern. Although we previously observed an association with prostate cancer (follow-up through 1999), the association did not persist with longer follow-up. We observed a nonsignificant elevated risk of prostate cancer with methyl bromide use among those with a family history of prostate cancer, but the interaction with a family history did not achieve statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide little evidence of methyl bromide associations with cancer risk for most sites examined; however, we observed a significant exposure-dependent increase in stomach cancer risk. Small numbers of exposed cases and declining methyl bromide use might have influenced our findings. Further study is needed in more recently exposed populations to expand on these results.
Authors: Aaron Blair; Robert Tarone; Dale Sandler; Charles F Lynch; Andrew Rowland; Wendy Wintersteen; William C Steen; Claudine Samanic; Mustafa Dosemeci; Michael C R Alavanja Journal: Epidemiology Date: 2002-01 Impact factor: 4.822
Authors: Michael C R Alavanja; Claudine Samanic; Mustafa Dosemeci; Jay Lubin; Robert Tarone; Charles F Lynch; Charles Knott; Kent Thomas; Jane A Hoppin; Joseph Barker; Joseph Coble; Dale P Sandler; Aaron Blair Journal: Am J Epidemiol Date: 2003-05-01 Impact factor: 4.897
Authors: Sonya L Heltshe; Jay H Lubin; Stella Koutros; Joseph B Coble; Bu-Tian Ji; Michael C R Alavanja; Aaron Blair; Dale P Sandler; Cynthia J Hines; Kent W Thomas; Joseph Barker; Gabriella Andreotti; Jane A Hoppin; Laura E Beane Freeman Journal: J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol Date: 2012-05-09 Impact factor: 5.563
Authors: Sharon Lee; Robert McLaughlin; Martha Harnly; Robert Gunier; Richard Kreutzer Journal: Environ Health Perspect Date: 2002-12 Impact factor: 9.031
Authors: Stella Koutros; Laura E Beane Freeman; Jay H Lubin; Sonya L Heltshe; Gabriella Andreotti; Kathryn Hughes Barry; Curt T DellaValle; Jane A Hoppin; Dale P Sandler; Charles F Lynch; Aaron Blair; Michael C R Alavanja Journal: Am J Epidemiol Date: 2012-11-21 Impact factor: 4.897
Authors: A C Gore; V A Chappell; S E Fenton; J A Flaws; A Nadal; G S Prins; J Toppari; R T Zoeller Journal: Endocr Rev Date: 2015-11-06 Impact factor: 19.871
Authors: Eryn K Matich; Jonathan A Laryea; Kathryn A Seely; Shelbie Stahr; L Joseph Su; Ping-Ching Hsu Journal: Ecotoxicol Environ Saf Date: 2021-05-21 Impact factor: 7.129
Authors: Jeavana Sritharan; Jill MacLeod; Shelley Harris; Donald C Cole; Anne Harris; Michael Tjepkema; Paul A Peters; Paul A Demers Journal: Cancer Med Date: 2018-03-01 Impact factor: 4.452