JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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A population-based case-control study of soft-tissue sarcoma (STS), Hodgkin's disease (HD), and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in Kansas found farm herbicide use to be associated with NHL (odds ratio [OR], 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.9, 2.6). Relative risk of NHL increased significantly with number of days of herbicide exposure per year and latency. Men exposed to herbicides more than 20 days per year had a sixfold increased risk of NHL (OR, 6.0; 95% CI, 1.9, 19.5) relative to nonfarmers. ⋯ Neither STS nor HD was associated with pesticide exposure. This study confirms the reports from Sweden and several US states that NHL is associated with farm herbicide use, especially phenoxyacetic acids. It does not confirm the case-control studies or the cohort studies of pesticide manufacturers and Vietnam veterans linking herbicides to STS or HD.