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Epidemiologic study of residential proximity to transmission lines and childhood cancer in California: description of design, epidemiologic methods and study population

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 25, pages 45–52 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

We conducted a large epidemiologic case-control study in California to examine the association between childhood cancer risk and distance from the home address at birth to the nearest high-voltage overhead transmission line as a replication of the study of Draper et al. in the United Kingdom. We present a detailed description of the study design, methods of case ascertainment, control selection, exposure assessment and data analysis plan. A total of 5788 childhood leukemia cases and 3308 childhood central nervous system cancer cases (included for comparison) and matched controls were available for analysis. Birth and diagnosis addresses of cases and birth addresses of controls were geocoded. Distance from the home to nearby overhead transmission lines was ascertained on the basis of the electric power companies’ geographic information system (GIS) databases, additional Google Earth aerial evaluation and site visits to selected residences. We evaluated distances to power lines up to 2000 m and included consideration of lower voltages (60–69 kV). Distance measures based on GIS and Google Earth evaluation showed close agreement (Pearson correlation >0.99). Our three-tiered approach to exposure assessment allowed us to achieve high specificity, which is crucial for studies of rare diseases with low exposure prevalence.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by a research contract from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to the UCLA and by the UCLA Faculty Grants Program. Crespi was also supported by National Institutes of Health grant CA16042. The study was approved by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Office for the Protection of Research Subjects, University of Southern California IRB, and California Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS). We thank Kevin Hooper for GE validation and site visit work. We are grateful to participating utilities for time and effort in providing crucial data for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Leeka Kheifets

  2. Department of Biostatistics, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Catherine M Crespi

  3. Enertech Consultants, Campbell, California, USA

    Chris Hooper

  4. Department of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Sona Oksuzyan

  5. Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Myles Cockburn

  6. Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Thomas Ly

  7. Environment Department, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, USA

    Gabor Mezei

Authors
  1. Leeka Kheifets
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  2. Catherine M Crespi
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  3. Chris Hooper
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  4. Sona Oksuzyan
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  5. Myles Cockburn
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  6. Thomas Ly
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  7. Gabor Mezei
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Correspondence to Leeka Kheifets.

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Kheifets, L., Crespi, C., Hooper, C. et al. Epidemiologic study of residential proximity to transmission lines and childhood cancer in California: description of design, epidemiologic methods and study population. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 25, 45–52 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2013.48

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