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Oral Session 10 – Radiation, Ionising and Non-ionising
O10-1 Occupational exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields and risk of breast cancer in the mcc-spain study
  1. Javier Vila1,2,3,
  2. Michelle C Turner1,2,3,4,
  3. Ana Espinosa1,2,3,
  4. Esther Gracia1,2,3,
  5. Gemma Castaño-Vinyals1,2,3,5,
  6. Joseph D Bowman6,
  7. Juan Alguacil3,7,
  8. Vicente Martín3,8,
  9. Pilar Amiano3,9,
  10. Eva Ardanaz3,10,
  11. Javier Llorca3,11,
  12. Victor Moreno3,12,13,
  13. Angela Zumel1,2,3,
  14. Adonina Tardón3,14,
  15. Rosana Peiró3,15,
  16. Rafael Marcos-Gragera3,16,
  17. Miguel Santibáñez3,11,
  18. Elisabeth Cardis1,2,3,
  19. Marina Pollán3,17,
  20. Manolis Kogevinas1,2,3,18
  1. 1ISGlobal, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain
  2. 2Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
  3. 3CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain
  4. 4McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
  5. 6National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Cincinnati, USA
  6. 17Environmental and Cancer Epidemiology Unit, National Centre of Epidemiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
  7. 19IIS Puerta de Hierro, Majadahonda, Spain
  8. 8Universidad de León, León, Spain
  9. 9Subdirección de Salud Pública de Gipuzkoa, BioDonostia Instituto, Donostia, Spain
  10. 10Instituto de Salud Pública de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
  11. 11Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
  12. 12IDIBELL-Catalan Institute of Oncology, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
  13. 13Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
  14. 7Centro De Investigación en Salud y Medio Ambiente (CYSMA), Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, Spain
  15. 14Instituto Universitario de Oncología, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain
  16. 15FISABIO–Salud Pública, Valencia, Spain
  17. 16Epidemiology Unit and Girona Cancer Registry, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain
  18. 5IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain
  19. 18School of Public Health, Athens, Greece

Abstract

Background Exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) is a suspected risk factor for leukaemia in children and possibly for brain tumours in adults. Though early studies suggested an association between ELF-MF and breast cancer, recent meta-analyses have been contradictory and, while some reported positive associations, in particular in post-menopausal women, others reported no evidence of an association. In this study, we examined the association between occupational ELF-MF and breast cancer risk in the MCC-Spain study using a recently updated version of an ELF-MF job-exposure matrix (JEM).

Methods A total of 1,539 female breast cancer cases and 1,602 controls, recruited throughout ten Spanish regions between 2008 and 2013, were included in this analysis. Estimates of lifetime cumulative exposure to ELF-MF were assigned to study participants based on the ELF-JEM, recoded to the Spanish system of occupations (CNO94, four digits), and information collected on the subjects' occupational histories. An analysis was performed using unconditional logistic regression adjusted for age, education, and region.

Results A statistically significant positive association was observed for lifetime cumulative ELF-MF exposure, Odds Ratio (OR) per 10 unit log-transformed geometric mean = 1.10; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.01–1.20; p = 0.027). Analyses including reproductive and hormonal factors as well as using average exposure and exposure in different time windows will be presented.

Conclusions Occupational exposure to ELF-MF may play a role in breast cancer risk.

https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2016-103951.52

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