Evaluation of exposure to contaminated drinking water and specific birth defects and childhood cancers at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: a case–control study

Environmental Health

Research

Morris Maslia¹  Frank J Bove²  Perri Zeitz Ruckart² 

[1] Division of Community Health Investigations, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, MS F-59, 4770 Buford Highway, 30341, Atlanta, GA, USA;Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, MS F-58, 4770 Buford Highway, 30341, Atlanta, GA, USA;

关键词: Neural tube defects;    Childhood cancers;    Environmental epidemiology;    Trichloroethylene;    Water;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-12-104

 received in 2013-06-21, accepted in 2013-11-22,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDrinking water supplies at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune were contaminated with trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, benzene, vinyl chloride and trans-1,2-dichloroethylene during 1968 through 1985.MethodsWe conducted a case control study to determine if children born during 1968–1985 to mothers with residential exposure to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune during pregnancy were more likely to have childhood hematopoietic cancers, neural tube defects (NTDs), or oral clefts. For cancers, exposures during the first year of life were also evaluated. Cases and controls were identified through a survey of parents residing on base during pregnancy and confirmed by medical records. Controls were randomly sampled from surveyed participants who had a live birth without a major birth defect or childhood cancer. Groundwater contaminant fate and transport and distribution system models provided estimates of monthly levels of drinking water contaminants at mothers’ residences. Magnitude of odds ratios (ORs) was used to assess associations. Confidence intervals (CIs) were used to indicate precision of ORs. We evaluated parental characteristics and pregnancy history to assess potential confounding.ResultsConfounding was negligible so unadjusted results were presented. For NTDs and average 1st trimester exposures, ORs for any benzene exposure and for trichloroethylene above 5 parts per billion were 4.1 (95% CI: 1.4-12.0) and 2.4 (95% CI: 0.6-9.6), respectively. For trichloroethylene, a monotonic exposure response relationship was observed. For childhood cancers and average 1st trimester exposures, ORs for any tetrachloroethylene exposure and any vinyl chloride exposure were 1.6 (95% CI: 0.5-4.8), and 1.6 (95% CI: 0.5-4.7), respectively. The study found no evidence suggesting any other associations between outcomes and exposures.ConclusionAlthough CIs were wide, ORs suggested associations between drinking water contaminants and NTDs. ORs suggested weaker associations with childhood hematopoietic cancers.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Ruckart et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013