Chemical Mixtures in Carpet Dust and Risk of Non- Hodgkin Lymphoma Risk in the NCI-SEER NHL Study

Background Several environmental exposures including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and specific pesticides are suspected risk factors for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Associations between chemical exposures and risk of NHL have typically been evaluated for individual chemicals or chemical groups, one-by-one. Objectives The goal was to determine the association between 27 correlated chemicals measured in house dust and NHL risk. Methods We conducted a population-based case-control study of NHL in four National Cancer Institute (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) sites: Detroit, Iowa, Los Angeles, and Seattle. House dust was sampled during in-home interviews (1998- 2000). We used weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression to model the association of 27 environmental chemicals and risk of NHL adjusting for age, gender, race, and education. We computed a WQS index that was a sum of weighted quartiles for 5 PCBs, 7 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and 15 pesticides. We estimated chem...