Nitrate in drinking water and risk of death from colon cancer in Taiwan

Abstract

The relationship between nitrate levels in drinking water and colon cancer has been inconclusive. A matched case-control and a nitrate ecology study were used to investigate the association between colon cancer mortality and nitrate exposure from Taiwan's drinking water. All colon cancer deaths of Taiwan residents from 1999 through 2003 were obtained from the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the Taiwan Provincial Department of Health. Controls were deaths from other causes and were pair matched to the cases by sex, year-of-birth, and year-of-death. Each matched control was selected randomly from the set of possible controls for each case. Data on nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) level of drinking water throughout Taiwan have been collected from Taiwan Water Supply Corporation (TWSC). The municipality of residence for cases and controls was assumed to be the source of the subject's nitrate exposure via drinking water. The adjusted odds ratios for colon cancer death for those with high NO3-N levels in their drinking water, as compared to the lowest tertile, were 0.98 (0.84-1.14) and 0.98 (0.83-1.16), respectively. The results of the present study show that there was no statistically significant association between NO3-N in drinking water at levels in this study and risk of death from colon cancer.