| Paternal Occupational Exposures and Childhood Cancer Maria Feychting,1 Nils Plato,2 Gun Nise,2 and Anders Ahlbom1 1Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 2Department of Occupational Health, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden Abstract
The objective of the study described here was to test the hypothesis that paternal occupational exposure near conception increases the risk of cancer in the offspring. We conducted a cohort study based on a population of 235,635 children born shortly after two different censuses in Sweden. The children were followed from birth to 14 years, and cases of cancer were identified in the Swedish Cancer Registry. Occupational hygienists assessed the probability of exposure to different agents in each combination of the father's industry and occupation as reported in the censuses. We also analyzed individual job titles. We compared the cancer incidence among children of exposed fathers to that among children of unexposed fathers using Cox proportional hazards modeling. The main findings were an increased risk of nervous system tumors related to paternal occupational exposure to pesticides [relative risk (RR) = 2.36 ; 95% confidence interval (CI) , 1.27-4.39] and work as a painter (RR = 3.65 ; 95% CI, 1.71-7.80) , and an increased risk of leukemia related to wood work by fathers (RR = 2.18 ; 95% CI, 1.26-3.78) . We found no associations between childhood leukemia and paternal exposure to pesticides or paint. Our results support previous findings of an increased risk of childhood brain tumors and leukemia associated with certain paternal occupational exposures. Some findings in previous studies were not confirmed in this study. Key words: brain tumors, cancer, children, leukemia, parental occupation, pesticides. Environ Health Perspect 109:193-196 (2001) . [Online 29 January 2001] http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109p193-196feychting/ abstract.html Address correspondence to M. Feychting, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Box 210, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Telephone: +46 8 7287465. Fax: +46 8 313961. E-mail: Maria.Feychting@imm.ki.se This study was funded by a grant from the Swedish Council for Work Life Research. Received 28 February 2000 ; accepted 7 September 2000.
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