Cadmium (Cd) and Lead (Pb) topsoil levels and incidence of childhood leukemias

Abstract

There are few well-established risk factors for childhood leukemias. While the frequency of childhood leukemias might be partially attributable to some diseases (accounting for a small fraction of cases) or ionizing radiation, the role of heavy metals has not been assessed. The objective of our study was to assess the potential association between levels of cadmium (Cd) and lead (PB) in soil and childhood leukemias incidence. We conducted a population-based case-control study of childhood leukaemia in Spain, covering 2897 incident cases gathered from the Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumours and including 14 Spanish Regions with a total population of 5,307,433 children (period 1996-2015). Cd and Pb bioavailable levels at every children's home address were estimated using data from the Geochemical Atlas of Spain. We used logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs); we included as covariates: sex, rurality, employment rate and socioeconomic status. Metal levels were analysed according to two definitions: as continuous variable assuming linearity and as categorical variables to explore a potentially nonlinear association (quantiles). Increases in both Cd and Pb topsoil levels were associated with increased probability of childhood leukemias incidence. The results for the models with the continuous variables showed that a unit increase on the topsoil level was associated with an OR of 1.11 for Cd (95%CI 1.00-1.24) and an OR of 1.10 for Pb (95%CI 0.99-1.21). Our study may point towards a possible link between residential Cd and Pb topsoil levels and the probability of childhood leukemias incidence. Residing in a location with the highest concentrations of these heavy metals compared to those locations with the lowest could increase the risk around a 20%, for both Cd and Pb.

Keywords: Childhood cancer; Environmental exposure; Heavy metals; Topsoil.