=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #38
—August 17, 1987—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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CHEMICAL EXPOSURES OF PARENTS AT WORK OR USE OF PESTICIDES AROUND HOME MAY
GIVE CHILDREN LEUKEMIA.
A parent’s use of pesticides around the home, or workplace exposure to any of several classes of chemicals
(especially chlorinated solvents) can increase children’s risk of developing leukemia, according to a new
study reported in the July issue of the JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE (pgs. 39-46).
Authors of the study are a team of researchers at the Medical School, University of Southern California at
Los Angeles. They studied 123 pairs of families; each pair contained one family with a child less than 10
years old with leukemia, and one family with a healthy child (matched for age, race or ethnicity,
socioeconomic status and sex).
Parental exposure to pesticides inside the home, or in a family garden, increase children’s risk of leukemia,
the study shows. The use of incense in the home also increased the risk. Because they did not expect to
find an association between household chemicals and leukemia, the researchers did not inquire about the
types of pesticides used. They are re-interviewing the families now to improve their understanding of the
problem. Previous studies have linked pesticide use to leukemia among farmers; this is the first study
showing a link between household pesticides and leukemia in children.
This is only the second study showing a cancer link between humans and chlorinated solvents. Many
studies of animals have shown carbon tetrachloride, tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene to be animal
carcinogens, and one earlier study linked children’s brain tumors to parental exposures to these solvents.
[See J.M. Peters and others, “Brain Tumors in Children and Occupational Exposure of Parents.” SCIENCE
Vol. 213 (1981), pgs. 235-237.]
The present study also showed that parents’ exposures to spray paint, cutting oil, methyl ethyl ketone, and
to dyes and pigments, increased the risk of leukemia in their children.
Parents bring the chemicals home on their skin and clothing and on their breath. An adult’s breath can carry
chlorinated solvents for hours after exposure has ceased. Mothers may expose their infant children through
breast milk. The greatest risk is to exposed infants and very young children. The parental occupations with
strongest links to children’s leukemia were machinery manufacture and airplane manufacture for the fathers
and personal service (beauty shop operators, domestic servants, and laundry operators) for the mothers.
For a reprint, contact J.M. Peters, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California
School of Medicine, 1420 San Pablo St., PMB B-306, Los Angeles, CA 90033. Ask for “Childhood Leukemia
and Parents’ Occupational and Home Exposures.”
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: pesticides; indoor air pollution; occupational safety and health; cancer; leukemia;
incense; carbon tetrachloride; trichloroethylene; dyes; pigments; methyl ethyl ketone;