CREAGEN, Environmental, Genetic and Nutritional Epidemiology Research Center, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
Eur J Epidemiol. 2012 Oct;27(10):781-90. doi: 10.1007/s10654-012-9727-1. Epub 2012 Aug 15.
Benzene, a recognized occupational leukemogen in adults, has been hypothesized to also increase the risk of childhood leukemia. We carried out a population-based case-control study in a northern Italy community involving 83 cases with acute childhood leukemia diagnosed in the years 1998-2009 and 332 matched controls. We assessed residential exposure to benzene and to particulate matter ≤10 μm (PM10) from motorized traffic using geocoded residences and detailed emission and dispersion modeling. Exposure to benzene, and to a lesser extent to PM10, appeared to be independently associated with an excess leukemia risk. When we stratified the study population by age and by leukemia subtype, the relative risk associated with benzene exposure was higher among children aged less than 5 years, and despite small numbers this relation appeared to be considerably stronger for acute myeloid leukemia than for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Overall, these findings suggest that exposure to low levels of benzene released from motorized traffic may increase the risk of childhood leukemia, and suggest a possible independent effect of PM10, although unmeasured confounding due to other pollutants cannot be ruled out.
苯是一种公认的成人职业性白血病诱发物，据推测也会增加儿童患白血病的风险。我们在意大利北部的一个社区进行了一项基于人群的病例对照研究，该研究涉及 83 名在 1998 年至 2009 年期间诊断出的急性儿童白血病病例和 332 名匹配的对照。我们通过居住地址编码以及详细的排放和扩散建模，评估了苯暴露以及来自机动车的颗粒物（PM10）暴露。苯暴露以及在较小程度上 PM10 暴露与白血病风险增加有关。当我们按年龄和白血病亚型对研究人群进行分层时，年龄小于 5 岁的儿童与苯暴露相关的相对风险更高，尽管数量较少，但这种关系对于急性髓细胞性白血病似乎比急性淋巴细胞性白血病要强得多。总的来说，这些发现表明，来自机动车的低水平苯暴露可能会增加儿童患白血病的风险，并且提示 PM10 可能具有独立作用，尽管不能排除其他污染物的未测量混杂因素。
