Citation:

Schreinemachers, D M. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANTS AND ADVERSE HUMAN HEALTH EFFECTS: HAZARD IDENTIFICATION USING INTERREGION COMPARISONS. Presented at U.S. Geological Survey Fifth Biennial Geographic Information Science Workshop, Denver, Colorado, March 1-5, 2004.

Description:

Background: Associations between adverse health effects and environmental exposures are difficult to study, because exposures may be widespread, low-dose in nature, and common throughout the study population. Therefore, individual risk-factor epidemiology may not be the right tool. A better method is provided by a series of multidisciplinary studies, starting with an hazard identification study, such as an interregion comparison. This presentation shows how existing databases routinely collected by Federal Agencies, can be used for the purpose of hazard identification.
Objective: Spring and durum wheat grown in the U.S. are mostly produced in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Chlorophenoxy herbicides are the predominant herbicides used on these crops. Since information on chlorophenoxy herbicide use per county is not available, wheat acreage per county was used as a surrogate exposure measure. Associations of cancer mortality and birth malformation rates with wheat acreage per county were investigated.
Methods: Cancer mortality for 1980-1989 deaths and birth malformations for 1995-1997 births in rural agricultural counties of Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, were extracted from existing databases maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics. Agricultural information for the selected counties was obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture website. Analyses were performed based on individual or grouped counties, depending on the levels of adverse health outcomes.
Results: With increasing wheat acreage per county, increased mortality rates were observed for the following cancer sites: stomach, rectum, pancreas, larynx, cervix, ovary, prostate, thyroid, bone, brain, leukemia, eye, nasal cavity, and oral cavity. With respect to birth malformations, increased rates of circulatory/respiratory and musculoskeletal/integumental malformations were observed in counties with a large wheat acreage.
Conclusions: The results may be relevant because chlorophenoxy herbicides are among the most widely used herbicides in the U.S. Subsequent studies based on different disciplines need to confirm the observed effects.
Disclaimer: This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.

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