Zeitschrift für Karzinogenese und Mutagenese

Abstrakt

Incidence Rates of Malignant Diseases in Childhood and Adolescence in Children to Swedish Fishermen

Ann Charlotte Dreifaldt, Michael Carlberg and Lennart Hardell

In this register-based study the risks of childhood malignant diseases in the offspring of Swedish fishermen
were analysed. Having a fisherman as a parent was used as surrogate for exposure, both pre- and postnatal, to
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) due to high fish consumption. A cohort of fishermen was identified by Statistics
Sweden by using the national census registration carried out from 1960 to 1990. For each fisherman, 4 matched
– population-based referents were drawn. The children of fishermen and referents were identified and matched
against the Swedish cancer registry 1960-1998, the causes of death registry 1960-1997 and notifications of deaths
1998-1999. Children diagnosed with cancer before the parent appeared in the census were excluded. Mantel-
Haenszel analysis, adjusted for age and gender, was performed. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% Confidence
Intervals (CI) for the different malignant diagnoses in children 0 to 19 years old were calculated. Fishermen children
had an overall increased incidence rate ratio of cancer, IRR=1.38, 95% CI=0.96-2.00. An increased incidence rate
ratio was observed for acute lymphatic leukaemia (ALL), IRR=2.65, 95% CI=1.005-6.97, and in west coast children
for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, IRR=3.19, 95% CI=0.98-10.4. The importance of exposure to POPs to these findings
needs further investigation.