Association between trihalomethane concentrations in drinking water and risk of death from pancreatic cancer

The objective of this study is to evaluate whether exposure to disinfection by-products (DBP) is associated with pancreatic cancer. A matched case-control study was used to investigate the relationship between the risk of death from pancreatic cancer and exposure to total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) from drinking water in 65 municipalities in Taiwan. All pancreatic cancer deaths of the 65 municipalities from 1997 through 2006 were obtained from the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the Taiwan Provincial Department of Health. Controls were deaths from other causes and were pair matched to the cases by gender, year-of-birth,and year-of-death. Each matched control was selected randomly from the set of possible controls for each cancer case. Data on TTHMs levels in drinking water in study municipalities were collected from Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration. The municipality of residence for cases and controls was assumed to be the source of the subject's TTHMs exposure via drinking water. The adjusted odds ratios for pancreatic cancer death for those with high TTHMs levels in their drinking water were 1.02 (0.83-1.24) and 1.05 (0.83-1.32) compared to the lowest group. The results of the present study show that there was no statistically significant association between TTHMs in drinking water at levels in this study and risk of death from pancreatic cancer.