Risk of childhood cancers associated with residence in agriculturally intense areas in the United States

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated whether residence in a county with greater agricultural activity was associated with risk of developing cancer in children < 15 years of age. METHODS: Incidence data for U.S. children 0-14 years of age diagnosed with cancer between 1995 and 2001 were provided by member registries of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.

We determined percent cropland for each county using agricultural census data, and used the overall study distribution to classify agriculturally intense counties. We estimated odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for all ages and 5-year age groups for total cancers and selected cancer sites using logistic regression. RESULTS: Our study results showed statistically significant increased risk estimates for many types of childhood cancers associated with residence at diagnosis in counties having a moderate to high level of agricultural activity, with a remarkably consistent dose-response effect seen for counties having ≥ 60% of the total county acreage devoted to farming.