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. 2020 Jul 17;17(14):5174.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17145174.

Occupational Exposure to Pesticides and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia in the MCC-Spain Study

Yolanda Benavente  1   2 , Laura Costas  1 , Marta Maria Rodríguez-Suarez  3   4 , Juan Alguacil  2   5 , Miguel Santibáñez  6 , Javier Vila  2   7   8 , Claudia Robles  1 , Esther Alonso  9 , Esmeralda de la Banda  9 , Eva Gonzalez-Barca  10 , Trinidad Dierssen-Sotos  2   11 , Eva Gimeno Vazquez  12 , Marta Aymerich  13   14 , Elias Campo  13   14 , José J Jiménez-Moleón  2   15   16 , Rafael Marcos-Gragera  2   17 , Gemma Castaño-Vinyals  2   7   8   18 , Nuria Aragonés  2   19 , Marina Pollan  2   20   21 , Silvia de Sanjose  1   2   22 , Manolis Kogevinas  2   7   8   18 , Adonina Tardón  2   23   24 , Delphine Casabonne  1   2
Affiliations

Occupational Exposure to Pesticides and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia in the MCC-Spain Study

Yolanda Benavente et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

We aimed to study the association between occupational exposure to pesticides and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in Spain. Occupational exposure to pesticides (four insecticides, four herbicides and two fungicides) was evaluated using a job-exposure matrix for the Spanish population (MatEmESp) among 302 CLL cases and 1567 population controls in five regions of Spain, 2010-2013. Cumulative exposure scores (CES) were obtained by summing across the exposed jobs the product of prevalence, intensity and duration of exposure to each active substance. Principal components analysis (PCA) and logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, region, education and occupational exposure to solvents were used. Around 20% of controls and 29% of cases were exposed to one or more pesticides. Compared to non-exposed, subjects in the highest tertile (3rd tertile) of CES of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides were more likely to have CLL [OR (95% CI), P-trend; 2.10 (1.38; 3.19), 0.002; 1.77 (1.12; 2.80), 0.12; and 1.67 (1.06; 2.64), 0.10, respectively). Following PCA, the first component (PC1, explaining 70% of the variation) equally led by seven active substances (the insecticide pyrethrin, all herbicides, all fungicides) was associated with a 26% higher odds of having CLL for 1-standard deviation increase in PC1 (95% CI: 1.14 to 1.40). These results confirm previous associations between CLL and exposure to pesticides and provide additional evidence by application groups and active substance. However, more research is needed to disentangle independent effects of individual active substances.

Keywords: chronic lymphocytic leukemia; job-exposure matrix; occupational exposure; pesticides.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Loading plot and values of principal component analysis (PCA) of CES and pesticide chemical agents (active substances) in the MCC-Spain.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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