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. 2024 Dec 5;24(1):1500.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-024-13221-6.

Geographical disparities in cancer and occupational exposure to pesticides in a French-West Indies territory (2006-2019)

Rémi Houpert  1 , Jacqueline Véronique-Baudin  2 , Thierry Almont  2 , Murielle Beaubrun-Renard  3 , Manon Boullard  3 , Aimée Pierre-Louis  3 , Mylène Vestris  3 , Stephen Ulric-Gervaise  3 , Christelle Montabord  2 , Jonathan Macni  3 , Emmanuelle Sylvestre  4   5 , Clarisse Joachim  3   6
Affiliations

Geographical disparities in cancer and occupational exposure to pesticides in a French-West Indies territory (2006-2019)

Rémi Houpert et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: In the French West Indies, previous studies have reported findings on pesticide exposure and cancer incidence. A new exploratory geographical study, including a more sensitive soil contamination indicator, will provide more detailed information on the link between cancer incidence and organochlorine pesticide exposure. This study aims to investigate the association between incident cases of cancer and chlordecone soil contamination at an IRIS scale over the period 2006-2019 in Martinique.

Methods: Data on the 18 most frequent cancer sites were collected from the Martinique Population Based Cancer Registry. First, smoothed standardized incidence ratios at the level of the 141 IRIS were estimated, and then regression models including the smoothed standardized ratios were performed between cancer incidence and soil contamination index by sex and cancer site, using the Besag, York and Mollié models. Models were adjusted using an index of social deprivation.

Results: 23,218 cancer cases were eligible for this study, with 21,920 cases included in the final analysis. Soil contamination was associated with a higher relative risk of cancer in women than in men, but no significant correlation was found for breast cancer in women or for prostate cancer. Lung, thyroid, stomach and rectal cancers in women, and melanoma in men, all increase significantly with the level of contamination. There was a significant increasing gradient in the incidence of multiple myeloma in men, from reference to highly contaminated areas.

Conclusion: Integrating the latest available data on soil contamination and cancer incidence will extend on-going knowledge of chlordecone exposure and cancer incidence, which remains a major environmental concern in Martinique. Unexpectedly, our results show that the female population of Martinique is the most affected by chlordecone soil contamination.

Keywords: Caribbean; Environment; Epidemiology; Neoplasms; Pesticides.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The cancer registry of Martinique is authorized by the French Data Protection Authority, Commission National Informatique et Liberté (CNIL), authorization N° 987001 of november 16, 1987. (Date of last CNIL amendment: June 05, 2015) Given their public health mandate, French cancer registries are authorized by the French Data Protection Authority ‘Commission National Informatique et Liberté’ (CNIL), to collect data on cancer cases with a waiver for written informed consent (deliberation n°03–053 of November 27, 2003). Patients’ information is given by notices displayed in health care facilities, their attending physician or specialist. General information is also available on the National Cancer Institute website: http://lesdonnees.e-cancer.fr/Informations/Sources/Notice-d-information-generale . This study obtained ethics approval from the research ethic committee of the ‘Comité de Protection des Personnes Ile de France IV’ Institutional Review Board Agreement of US Department of Health and Human Services (n°IRB 00003835). The Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) was voted by the data protection officer of the University Hospital of Martinique (dpo@chu-martinique.fr) in accordance to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Consent for publication was not required since our project do not involve patients. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Forest plot of relative risks and 80% credibility intervals between cancer incidence and chlordecone soil contamination index by cancer site and sex in Martinique (2006–2019). (reference area: no exposure)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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