Parental occupational exposures around conception (father) or during pregnancy (mother) have been hypothesized as potential predisposing factors for childhood leukaemia. We investigated parental exposure to several known occupational carcinogens and childhood leukaemia risk. We conducted a pooled analysis using case-control data from four European countries (3362 childhood leukemia cases and 6268 controls). Parental occupational exposures to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), diesel engine exhaust (DEE), chromium, nickel, crystalline silica, and asbestos were assessed by a general population job-exposure matrix. We estimated odd ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using unconditional logistic regression models for all childhood leukaemia combined, by leukaemia type (ALL and AML) and by ALL subtype (B-lineage and T-lineage). We found an association between high paternal occupational exposure to crystalline silica and childhood ALL (OR 2.20, CI 1.60–3.01) with increasing trend from no exposure to high exposure (P = <0.001), and also for AML (OR 2.03, CI 1.04–3.97; P for trend = 0.008). ORs were similar for B- and T-lineage ALL. For ALL, ORs were also slightly elevated with wide confidence intervals for high paternal occupational exposure to chromium (OR 1.23, CI 0.77–1.96), and DEE (OR 1.21, CI 0.82–1.77). No associations were observed for paternal exposures to nickel, PAH and asbestos. For maternal occupational exposure we found several slightly elevated odds ratios but mostly with very wide confidence intervals due to low numbers of exposed mothers. This is a first study suggesting an association between fathers’ occupational exposure to crystalline silica and an increased risk of childhood leukaemia in their offspring. As this association was driven by certain occupations (field crop farmers and miners) where other potentially relevant exposures like pesticides and radon may also occur, more research is needed to confirm our findings of an association with crystalline silica, and if so, mechanistic studies to understand the pathways.

父母在怀孕期间（父亲）或怀孕期间（母亲）的职业暴露被假设为儿童白血病的潜在诱发因素。我们调查了父母接触几种已知的职业致癌物和儿童白血病的风险。我们使用来自四个欧洲国家的病例对照数据（3362 例儿童白血病病例和 6268 例对照）进行了汇总分析。通过一般人群工作暴露矩阵评估父母对多环芳烃 (PAH)、柴油发动机尾气 (DEE)、铬、镍、结晶二氧化硅和石棉的职业暴露。我们使用无条件逻辑回归模型对所有儿童白血病联合、白血病类型（ALL 和 AML）和 ALL 亚型（B 谱系和 T 谱系）估计奇数比 (OR) 和 95% 置信区间 (CI)。P = <0.001），对于 AML 也是如此（OR 2.03，CI 1.04–3.97；P 表示趋势 = 0.008)。B 和 T 谱系 ALL 的 OR 相似。对于 ALL，对于父亲高职业铬（OR 1.23，CI 0.77-1.96）和 DEE（OR 1.21，CI 0.82-1.77）的高置信区间，OR 也略有升高。未观察到父亲暴露于镍、多环芳烃和石棉的相关性。对于孕产妇职业暴露，我们发现几个略微升高的优势比，但由于暴露的母亲数量少，大多数置信区间非常宽。这是第一项研究表明父亲职业接触结晶二氧化硅与其后代儿童白血病风险增加之间存在关联。由于这种关联是由某些职业（大田种植者和矿工）推动的，在这些职业中也可能发生其他潜在相关的暴露，如杀虫剂和氡，