Assessment of historic environmental exposures using environmental models in an epidemiologic study of childhood cancer
Michael Berry, Jerald Fagliano, Jonathan Savrin, Barbara Goun, Patricia
Haltmeier, James Blando (Consumer and Environmental Health Services, NJ Department
of Health and Senior Services);
Morris Maslia, (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry);
Panos Georgopoulos, Paul J. Lioy (EOHSI, UMDNJ - R.W. Johnson Medical
School and Rutgers University)
An important challenge in an epidemiologic study of a community with elevated childhood cancer is the accurate assessment of historic exposure. The primary environmental exposures of interest in this study included contaminated water from two public water supply well fields, and ambient air emissions from a major chemical manufacturing facility in the community. Residential histories for each study subject (40 cases and 159 controls) were collected by structured interview for the period one year prior to birth to the month of diagnosis. In order to develop prenatal and postnatal exposure indices, monthly computer modeling was conducted to estimate the flow of water within the community water distribution system and the dispersion of air pollutants from the manufacturing facility. Monthly estimates of the percent of water from each of the community's ten well fields and relative ambient air pollutant concentrations (gases and particulates) from the industrial facility were calculated for each of more than 700 study subject residences over a 35 year period, 1962-1996. Average prenatal and postnatal exposure indices were derived for each study subject using the monthly estimates for each residence the child (or mother) lived in during the study time period.