Background Evidence from recent studies provides support to the link between exposure to certain pesticide classes and risk of non Hodgkin lymphoma and its subtypes. Whether use of insecticides in the household is also associated with an increased risk is unclear.

Methods During 1998–2004, a case-control study on the aetiology of lymphoma was conducted Sardinia, Italy as part of the European multicentre study EPILYMPH. Information on use of insecticides in the household over the residential history of study subjects was collected using a standardised questionnaire. Risk of the major lymphoma subtypes associated with ever use of insecticides indoor and with quartiles of days/year of use was calculated with unconditional logistic regression analysis, adjusting by age, gender, education and study centre.

Results Risk of lymphoma overall and B-cell lymphoma was not associated with ever use of indoor insecticide in the household (OR = 0.8, 95% CI: 0.6–1.0), neither we observed an increase in risk associated with increasing quartiles of days/year of indoor use of insecticides: risk in the upper quartile was OR = 0.8 (95% CI: 0.5–1.3) for all lymphomas and OR = 0.8 (95% CI: 0.5–1.4) for B-cell lymphoma. Results were consistent across the major lymphoma subtypes, but multiple myeloma, which showed a modest non significant association, difficult to interpret because of the small number of cases.

Conclusions Pyrethroid and carbamate insecticides have been extensively used in different forms as indoor insecticides, particularly in rural areas or nearby water basins. Our results suggest no association between risk of the major lymphoma subtypes and prolonged indoor use of insecticides.