Parental occupation and intracranial neoplasms of childhood: Anecdotal evidence from a unique occupational cancer cluster

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Abstract
Near the end of the data‐collection phase of a case‐control interview study of environmental factors and childhood brain tumors, an unusual space‐time cluster was revealed. Not only had six genetically unrelated children been diagnosed with a primary intracranial tumor in a recent 2.4 year period in a rural county in Ohio, but each child had one parent employed by the same company (two mothers, four fathers). This represents an observed/expected ratio > 70 (p < 0.001). All tumors were microscopically confirmed, and all case parents worked at the facility in question for at least 1 year prior to conception, during the index pregnancy, and for at least 6 months after birth. The place of parental employment was an electronics firm (Standard Industrial Classification [SIC] group number 367, electronic components and accessories), where more than 100 chemical compounds are used by the company in a manufacturing process. Results of the cluster investigation are described, including a description of the case series. This cancer cluster is unique in that the index case series is composed of the offspring of workers, not the workers themselves.

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