Environmental and occupational exposures and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in New England

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Neurodegener Dis
• Personal Author:
  Andrew, Angeline S. ; Caller, Tracie A. ; Tandan, Rup ; Duell, Eric J. ; Henegan, Patricia L. ; Field, Nicholas ; Bradley, Walter G. ; Stommel, Elijah W.
• Description:
  Background
  
  Recent data provide support for the concept that potentially modifiable exposures are responsible for sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
  
  Objective
  
  To evaluate environmental and occupational exposures as risk factors for sporadic ALS.
  
  Methods
  
  We performed a case-control study of ALS among residents of New England. The analysis compared questionnaire responses from 295 patients with a confirmed ALS diagnosis to those of 225 controls without neurodegenerative illness.
  
  Results
  
  Self-reported job or hobby-related exposure to one or more chemicals, such as pesticides, solvents, or heavy metals, increased the risk of ALS (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.51 95%CI 1.64–3.89). Industries with higher toxicant exposure potential (construction, manufacturing, mechanical, military, or painting) were associated with elevated occupational risk (adjusted OR 3.95 95%CI 2.04–8.30). We also identified increases in the risk of ALS associated with frequent participation in water sports, particularly water-skiing (adjusted OR 3.89 95%CI 1.97–8.44). Occupation and water-skiing both retained independent statistical significance in a composite model containing age, gender, and smoking status.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Our study contributes to a growing body of literature implicating occupational- and hobby-related toxicant exposures in ALS etiology. These epidemiologic study results also provide motivation for future evaluation of water-body related risk factors.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Aged Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Case-Control Studies Environmental Exposure Female Humans Male Middle Aged New England Occupational Exposure Risk Factors

  More +
• Keywords:
  Environmental Exposure Occupation Toxicant Water
• Source:
  Neurodegener Dis. 17(2-3):110-116
• Pubmed ID:
  28122372
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5383428
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  KL2 TR001088/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 TS000245/TS/ATSDR CDC HHSUnited States/ ; UL1 TR001086/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  17
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0a1f5f27328dc1bfa408ba6ef344dcbc926026bed23cd6193a556bdeeb706d19aaafefd7e83b91872e991fd99409e86aa3cd7f18aebd51c2bdd530e084164a7d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/45012/cdc_45012_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 85.09 KB ]