Effects of drinking water from the lower reaches of the Huangpu River on the risk of male stomach and liver cancer death.

A quasi-historical cohort study method was used to collect the data of male stomach and liver cancer death and the data of exposure to relevant risk factors from 1984 to 1988 in male tap-water- and raw-water-drinking cohorts (> or = 30 years old) at both the upper and lower reaches of the Huangpu River. Total person-years observed are 172,448. The Odds Ratios of drinking water from the lower reaches for male stomach cancer and liver cancer death are 2.021 (p < 0.01) and 1.851 (p < 0.01), respectively, in unconditional logistic regression analysis after controlling possible confounding factors. The result shows that drinking water from the lower reaches of the Huangpu River is one of the important risk factors for male stomach and liver cancer death in local areas.