Nitrate and Brain/CNS Cancer Diagnoses in the First Year of Life

Author: Sajid, Arshi; Semprini, Jason

Description: Nitrates in drinking water, common in agricultural states like Iowa, pose health risks to young infants. This brief first reviews the plausible biological mechanisms linking nitrate exposure to brain and central nervous system (BCNS) cancers in the first year of life. We then linked historic water quality and cancer registry data at the county level to construct linear and quantile regression models estimating the association between a BCNS diagnosis and nitrate measures. We found significantly higher nitrate levels preceding pediatric zero-year-old BCNS cancer diagnoses. These findings support investigating early-life nitrate exposure as a potential risk factor for infant BCNS tumors.

Subject headings: Humans; Nitrates; Brain Neoplasms; Infant; Central Nervous System Neoplasms; Female; Male; Newborn; Registries; Risk Factors; Drinking Water; Environmental Exposure; Brain/central nervous system; Cancer; Environment; Rural

Publication year: 2026

Journal or book title: Pediatric Blood & Cancer

Volume: 73

Issue: 2

Pages: e70054

Find the full text: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1545-5017.70054

Find more like this one (cited by): https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=16537926703744537336&as_sdt=1000005&sciodt=0,16&hl=en

Serial number: 4175

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