Cancer mortality in US counties with hazardous waste sites and ground water pollution

Journal Article · Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1989 · Arch. Environ. Health; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/00039896.1989.9934378· OSTI ID:5991967

Griffith, J; Duncan, R C; Riggan, W B; Pellom, A C

Since the late 1950s, more than 750 million tons of toxic chemical wastes have been discarded in an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 hazardous waste sites (HWSs). Uncontrolled discarding of chemical wastes creates the potential for risks to human health. Utilizing the National Priorities Listing (NPL) of hazardous waste sites developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this study identified 593 waste sites in 339 U.S. counties in 49 states with analytical evidence of contaminated ground drinking water providing a sole source water supply. For each identified county, age-adjusted, site-specific cancer mortality rates for 13 major sites for the decade 1970-1979, for white males and females, were extracted from U.S. Cancer Mortality and Trends 1950-1979. Also, HWS and non-HWS counties that showed excess numbers of deaths were enumerated for each cancer selected. Significant associations (p less than .002) between excess deaths and all HWS counties were shown for cancers of the lung, bladder, esophagus, stomach, large intestine, and rectum for white males; and for cancers of the lung, breast, bladder, stomach, large intestine, and rectum for white females when compared to all non-HWS counties. There were no consistent geographical patterns that suggested a broad distribution of gastrointestinal cancers associated with HWSs throughout the United States, although we did identify a cluster of excess gastrointestinal cancers in counties within states located in EPA Region 3 (Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia).

• Research Organization: Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5991967
• Journal Information: Arch. Environ. Health; (United States), Vol. 44:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
CHEMICAL WASTES
HEALTH HAZARDS
GROUND WATER
CONTAMINATION
CARCINOGENESIS
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
MAN
MORTALITY
NEOPLASMS
TOXIC MATERIALS
US EPA
WATER POLLUTION
ANIMALS
DISEASES
HAZARDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MAMMALS
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PATHOGENESIS
POLLUTION
PRIMATES
US ORGANIZATIONS
VERTEBRATES
WASTES
WATER
520200* - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
560300 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology