Thyroid Cancer Incidence around the Belgian Nuclear Sites, 2000–2014

Claire Demoury, Tom De Smedt, Harlinde De Schutter, Michel Sonck, Nancy Van Damme, Kaatje Bollaerts, Geert Molenberghs, Lodewijk Van Bladel and An Van Nieuwenhuyse
Additional contact information
Claire Demoury: Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tom De Smedt: Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Harlinde De Schutter: Belgian Cancer Registry, 1210 Brussels, Belgium
Michel Sonck: Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Nancy Van Damme: Belgian Cancer Registry, 1210 Brussels, Belgium
Kaatje Bollaerts: Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Geert Molenberghs: Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics (I-BioStat), Universiteit Hasselt and KU Leuven, 3500 Hasselt and 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Lodewijk Van Bladel: Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
An Van Nieuwenhuyse: Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), 1050 Brussels, Belgium

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: The present study investigates whether there is an excess incidence of thyroid cancer among people living in the vicinity of the nuclear sites in Belgium. Adjusted Rate Ratios were obtained from Poisson regressions for proximity areas of varying sizes. In addition, focused hypothesis tests and generalized additive models were performed to test the hypothesis of a gradient in thyroid cancer incidence with increasing levels of surrogate exposures. Residential proximity to the nuclear site, prevailing dominant winds frequency from the site, and simulated radioactive discharges were used as surrogate exposures. No excess incidence of thyroid cancer was observed around the nuclear power plants of Doel or Tihange. In contrast, increases in thyroid cancer incidence were found around the nuclear sites of Mol-Dessel and Fleurus; risk ratios were borderline not significant. For Mol-Dessel, there was evidence for a gradient in thyroid cancer incidence with increased proximity, prevailing winds, and simulated radioactive discharges. For Fleurus, a gradient was observed with increasing prevailing winds and, to a lesser extent, with increasing simulated radioactive discharges. This study strengthens earlier findings and suggests increased incidences in thyroid cancer around two of the four Belgian nuclear sites. Further analyses will be performed at a more detailed geographical level.

Keywords: thyroid cancer; incidence; nuclear sites; ecological study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/9/988/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/9/988/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:9:p:988-:d:110419

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().