ABSTRACT We evaluated the relationship between the risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and the levels of metals in carpet dust. A dust sample was collected from the homes of

142 ALL cases and 187 controls participating in the California Childhood Leukemia Study using a high volume small surface sampler (2001–2006). Samples were analyzed using microwave-assisted

acid digestion in combination with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, tin, tungsten, and zinc. Eight metals were detected in

at least 85% of the case and control homes; tungsten was detected in <15% of homes. Relationships between dust metal loadings (μg metal per m2 carpet) and ALL risk were modeled using

(0.91, 1.03), lead: 1.01 (0.93, 1.10), nickel: 0.95 (0.82, 1.09), tin: 0.96 (0.86, 1.08), and zinc: 0.94 (0.84, 1.05)). Our findings do not support the hypothesis that metals in carpet dust

are risk factors for childhood ALL. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your

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2020 A QUEST TO IDENTIFY SUITABLE ORGANIC TRACERS FOR ESTIMATING CHILDREN’S DUST INGESTION RATES Article 13 July 2020 EXPLORING THE PARTICLE SIZE EFFECT, LAND USE CLASSIFICATION, AND

MAGNETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF STREET DUST IN URBANIZED AREAS IN POLAND Article Open access 14 April 2025 REFERENCES * Ross JA, Spector LG . Cancers in children. In: Fraumeni JF, Schottenfeld D

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Scholar  Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS, grant numbers R01ES009137 and P42ES0470518);

by the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Health (Subcontracts 7590-S-04, 7590-S-01); and by the NCI (Contract N02-CP-11015). We thank

the families for their participation. We also thank the clinical investigators at the following collaborating hospitals for the help in recruiting patients: University of California Davis

Medical Center (Dr. Jonathan Ducore), University of California San Francisco (Drs. Mignon Loh and Katherine Matthay), Children's Hospital of Central California (Dr. Vonda Crouse),

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (Dr. Gary Dahl), Children's Hospital Oakland (Dr. James Feusner), Kaiser Permanente Oakland (Drs. Daniel Kronish and Stacy Month), Kaiser

Permanente Roseville (Drs. Kent Jolly and Vincent Kiley), Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara (Drs. Carolyn Russo, Denah Taggart, and Alan Wong), and Kaiser Permanente San Francisco (Dr. Kenneth

Leung). We thank Mr. Adam Abbgy of the Battelle Memorial Institute for his contribution as an analytical chemist. We acknowledge the late Dr. Patricia Buffler, the founding principal

investigator of the California Childhood Leukemia Study, and her leadership of the study for nearly 20 years. Finally, we acknowledge the study staff for their effort and dedication. AUTHOR

INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA Todd P Whitehead, Robert B Gunier, S Katharine Hammond, Stephen M

Rappaport & Catherine Metayer * Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Department of Health and Human Services, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer

Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA Mary H Ward & Joanne S Colt * Department of Pediatrics, Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford

University, Palo Alto, California, USA Gary Dahl * Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, California, USA Jonathan Ducore * Cedars-Sinai

Heart Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA Kyndaron Reinier Authors * Todd P Whitehead View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

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CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Todd P Whitehead. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental

Epidemiology website SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION (DOC 251 KB) RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Whitehead, T.,

Ward, M., Colt, J. _et al._ Dust metal loadings and the risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. _J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol_ 25, 593–598 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2015.9

Download citation * Received: 17 September 2014 * Revised: 22 December 2014 * Accepted: 29 December 2014 * Published: 04 March 2015 * Issue Date: November 2015 * DOI:

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available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative KEYWORDS * childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia * dust * environmental

exposure * lead * metals