The specific aim of the proposed research is to evaluate the joint etiologic importance of occupational exposures, environmental exposures and cigarette smoking among newly diagnosed cases of adult male leukemia residing in six Texas gulf coast counties. The design will be an incident case-comparison study in which exposure information is obtained through interview. Two comparison subjects will be drawn from driver's license tapes provided to the investigators by the State of Texas, and matched to each case by age and race. The study area has been chosen because of reports of several leukemia clusters in the area in recent years. Two of these have been in industrial settings and a third in a high school situated near a chemical plant. The area contains one of the largest petrochemical complexes in the world, and is well-suited for the study of the influence of occupation in the industry and residence near point sources of chemical pollution. Other factors to be examined are familial aggregation of leukemia and lymphoma, prior exposure to therapeutic radiation and chemotherapy, and exposure to animals, but these are not the primary focus of the study. Analysis of the data will be by histologic type whenever numbers permit. Interactions among the primary risk factors will be examined by use of the logistic model. The study is projected to last from April, 1984 to March, 1987. All new cases occurring between January, 1983 and December, 1986 will be included in the study, and that is estimated to be between 340 and 430 persons.
