Balkissa Ouattara

and 8 more

This study was conducted to examine, at the county level, the relationship between pediatric cancers incidence rate and atrazine and nitrate mean concentrations in surface and groundwater. A negative binomial regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between central nervous system (CNS) tumors, leukemia, lymphoma, and atrazine and nitrate mean concentrations in surface and groundwater. The age-adjusted brain and other CNS cancers incidence was higher than the national average in 63% of the Nebraska counties. After controlling for nitrate concentrations in surface and groundwater, counties with atrazine concentrations between 0.95 - 2.82 µg/L in both surface and groundwater had a higher incidence rate for pediatric cancers (brain and other CNS, leukemia, and lymphoma) compared to counties with surface and groundwater atrazine concentrations in the reference group (0.00 - 0.13 µg/L). Additionally, compared to counties with groundwater nitrate concentrations between 0 and 2 mg/L (reference group), counties with groundwater nitrate concentrations between 2.1 and 5 mg/L (group 2) had a higher incidence rate for pediatric brain and other CNS cancers (IRR=13.25; 95% CI: 13.00-13.50), leukemia (IRR=6.13; 95% CI: 6.02-6.26), and lymphoma (IRR=11.53; 95% CI: 11.32-11.75) after adjusting for all covariates in the model. While these findings do not indicate a causal relationship, they suggest that atrazine and nitrate may pose a significant risk relative to the genesis of pediatric brain and CNS cancers, leukemia, and lymphoma.