ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Brain tumours and exposure to pesticides: a case–control study in southwestern France

Dorothée Provost¹, Anne Cantagrel¹, Pierre Lebailly², Anne Jaffré¹, Véronique Loyant², Hugues Loiseau³, Anne Vital⁴, Patrick Brochard¹, Isabelle Baldi¹

¹ Laboratoire Santé Travail Environnement, Institut de Santé Publique d’Epidémiologie et de Développement, IFR 99, Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France
² GRECAN, Centre François Baclesse, Université de Caen-Basse Normandie, Caen, France
³ Service de Neurochirurgie, CHU Pellegrin, Bordeaux, France
⁴ Laboratoire d’Anatomopathologie, Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France

Correspondence to:
Dr I Baldi
Laboratoire Santé Travail Environnement, Institut de Santé Publique d’Epidémiologie et de Développement, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076 Bordeaux cedex, France; Isabelle.Baldi{at}isped.u-bordeaux2.fr

Background: Brain tumours are often disabling and rapidly lethal; their aetiology is largely unknown. Among potential risk factors, pesticides are suspected.

Objective: To examine the relationship between exposure to pesticides and brain tumours in adults in a population-based case–control study in southwestern France.

Methods: Between May 1999 and April 2001, 221 incident cases of brain tumours and 442 individually matched controls selected from the general population were enrolled. Histories of occupational and environmental exposures, medical and lifestyle information were collected. A cumulative index of occupational exposure to pesticides was created, based on expert review of lifelong jobs and tasks. Separate analyses were performed for gliomas and meningiomas.

Results: A non-statistically significant increase in risk was found for brain tumours when all types of occupational exposure to pesticides were considered (OR = 1.29, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.91) and slightly higher but still non-statistically significant when gliomas were considered separately (OR = 1.47, 95% CI 0.81 to 2.66). In the highest quartile of the cumulative index, a significant association was found for brain tumours (OR = 2.16, 95% CI 1.10 to 4.23) and for gliomas (OR = 3.21, 95% CI 1.13 to 9.11), but not for meningiomas. A significant increase in risk was also seen for the treatment of home plants (OR = 2.24, 95% CI 1.16 to 4.30) owing to environmental exposure to pesticides.

Conclusions: These data suggest that a high level of occupational exposure to pesticides might be associated with an excess risk of brain tumours, and especially of gliomas.

Keywords: occupation; environment; case–control study

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