Original Contribution Bladder Cancer and Exposure to Water Disinfection By-Products through Ingestion, Bathing, Showering, and Swimming in Pools

Bladder cancer has been associated with exposure to chlorination by-products in drinking water, and experi-mental evidence suggests that exposure also occurs through inhalation and dermal absorption. The authors examined whether bladder cancer risk was associated with exposure to trihalomethanes (THMs) through ingestion of water and through inhalation and dermal absorption during showering, bathing, and swimming in pools. Lifetime personal information on water consumption and water-related habits was collected for 1,219 cases and 1,271 controls in a 1998–2001 case-control study in Spain and was linked with THM levels in geographic study areas