Parental occupational exposure to low-frequency magnetic fields and risk of leukaemia in the offspring: findings from the Childhood Leukaemia International Consortium (CLIC). Issue 10 (29th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Talibov, Madar; Olsson, Ann; Bailey, Helen; Erdmann, Friederike; Metayer, Catherine; Magnani, Corrado; Petridou, Eleni; Auvinen, Anssi; Spector, Logan; Clavel, Jacqueline; Roman, Eve; Dockerty, John; Nikkilä, Atte; Lohi, Olli; Kang, Alice; Psaltopoulou, Theodora; Miligi, Lucia; Vila, Javier; Cardis, Elisabeth; Schüz, Joachim
• Is Part Of: Occupational and environmental medicine. Volume 76:Issue 10(2019)
• Page Start: 746
• Page End: 753
• Publication Date: 2019-07-29
• Subjects: acute lymphoblastic leukemia -- acute myeloid leukemia -- case-control study -- elf-mf -- occupation; Medicine, Industrial -- Periodicals; Environmental health -- Periodicals; 616.980305
• DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2019-105706
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1351-0711

Abstract

Abstract : Objectives: Previously published studies on parental occupational exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) and risk of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in their offspring were inconsistent. We therefore evaluated this question within the Childhood Leukemia International Consortium. Methods: We pooled 11 case–control studies including 9723 childhood leukaemia cases and 17 099 controls. Parental occupational ELF-MF exposure was estimated by linking jobs to an ELF-MF job-exposure matrix (JEM). Logistic regression models were used to estimate ORs and 95% CIs in pooled analyses and meta-analyses. Results: ORs from pooled analyses for paternal ELF-MF exposure >0.2 microtesla (µT) at conception were 1.04 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.13) for ALL and 1.06 (95% CI 0.87 to 1.29) for AML, compared with ≤0.2 µT. Corresponding ORs for maternal ELF-MF exposure during pregnancy were 1.00 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.12) for ALL and 0.85 (95% CI 0.61 to 1.16) for AML. No trends of increasing ORs with increasing exposure level were evident. Furthermore, no associations were observed in the meta-analyses. Conclusions: In this large international dataset applying a comprehensive quantitative JEM, we did not find any associations between parental occupational ELF-MF exposure and childhood leukaemia.