Laura Beane Freeman

Laura Beane Freeman
National Institutes of Health | NIH

About

419
Publications
66,884
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21,525
Citations
Additional affiliations
June 2003 - present

Publications

Publications (419)
Article
Full-text available
Background Few studies have assessed motor and nonmotor symptoms and the prodromal probability of Parkinson's disease (PD) among farming populations. Objective The aim was to assess self‐reported nonmotor and motor symptoms and the prodromal PD probability in relation to incident PD among US farmers. Methods The study included 16,059 farmers (age...
Article
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Background Pesticide exposure may contribute to cognitive decline, but empirical evidence is limited. We examined high pesticide exposure events (HPEE) in relation to subjective cognitive decline among farmers in the Pesticide and Sense of Smell Study (PASS), a sub‐cohort of the Agricultural Health Study (AHS). Method This analysis included 2365 p...
Article
Background Occupational exposure to endotoxin has been associated with reduced lung cancer risk. The mechanisms underlying this association are unclear, though immunological alterations likely play a role. Farmers who perform certain tasks (eg, raising hogs) can be highly exposed to endotoxin. We, therefore, leveraged measurements of circulating im...
Article
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Pesticides and farming have been associated with increased rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk, but the role of specific pesticides remains unknown. We examined RA risk among licensed pesticide applicators (97% white male farmers), from North Carolina and Iowa, in the Agricultural Health Study, in relation to lifetime use of 45 pesticides reported at en...
Technical Report
Full-text available
In March, 2024, an Advisory Group of 28 independent scientists from 22 countries met in Lyon, France to recommend priorities for carcinogenicity evaluations by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs programme during 2025–29. IARC periodically convenes such advisory groups to ensure that the agents evaluated in the Monogra...
Article
Full-text available
Objective Elevated pesticide concentrations have been found in dust from homes with residents who use agricultural pesticides, but few studies have compared these concentrations to quantitative measures of their use. We evaluated household pesticide dust concentrations in relation to quantitative, active ingredient-specific metrics of agricultural...
Preprint
Most people spend over 90% of their time indoors. Chronic exposure to the microbes in house dust have been linked to our respiratory health, but little is known about the roles of specific microbes. To learn more, a recent study examined how house dust microbes impact two key measures of respiratory health, lung function and airway inflammation. Us...
Article
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Background Chronic exposure to microorganisms inside homes can impact respiratory health. Few studies have used advanced sequencing methods to examine adult respiratory outcomes, especially continuous measures. We aimed to identify metagenomic profiles in house dust related to the quantitative traits of pulmonary function and airway inflammation in...
Article
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Background Pollutants including metals/metalloids, nitrate, disinfection byproducts, and volatile organic compounds contaminate federally regulated community water systems (CWS) and unregulated domestic wells across the United States. Exposures and associated health effects, particularly at levels below regulatory limits, are understudied. Objecti...
Article
With advances in the early detection and treatment of cancer, the incidence of multiple primary cancers (MPC) or second primary cancers has increased over time. Characterization of etiologic risk factors, including family history of cancer, within the general population is critical for assessing MPC risk in patients. We examined the association bet...
Article
Background Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death globally. Risk factors for pancreatic cancer include common genetic variants and potentially heavy alcohol consumption. We assessed if genetic variants modify the association between heavy alcohol consumption and pancreatic cancer risk. Methods We conducted a genome-wide inter...
Article
Importance One in 3 US adults uses multivitamins (MV), with a primary motivation being disease prevention. In 2022, the US Preventive Services Task Force reviewed data on MV supplementation and mortality from randomized clinical trials and found insufficient evidence for determining benefits or harms owing, in part, to limited follow-up time and ex...
Article
In March, 2024, an Advisory Group of 28 independent scientists from 22 countries met in Lyon, France to recommend priorities for carcinogenicity evaluations by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs programme during 2025–29. IARC periodically convenes such advisory groups to ensure that the agents evaluated in the Monogra...
Article
Raising farm animals involves a variety of exposures, including microbes, antimicrobial agents, bioaerosols, and pesticides that may influence the human microbiome. Exposure to farm animals has also been associated with some cancers including lower risk of lung cancer and elevated risks of certain hematologic malignancies, with heterogeneity by ani...
Article
Background: Carbaryl is a carbamate insecticide with widespread residential and agricultural uses. Previous epidemiologic investigations, including in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), have suggested potential associations between carbaryl use and cancer risk. In this analysis, we updated a previous AHS evaluation of carbaryl and cancer risk by...
Article
The etiology of bladder cancer among never smokers without occupational or environmental exposure to established urothelial carcinogens remains unclear. Urinary mutagenicity is an integrative measure that reflects recent exposure to genotoxic agents. Here, we investigated its potential association with bladder cancer in rural northern New England....
Article
Background: Atrazine is a common agricultural herbicide in the United States. Few epidemiologic studies have evaluated cancer risks. Previous analyses within the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) have found some evidence of associations with cancer at some sites. Objective: We updated exposure information, incident cases, and follow-up time to ass...
Article
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Background Pesticide exposure has been linked to some autoimmune diseases and colorectal cancer, possibly via alteration of gut microbiota or other mechanisms. While pesticides have been linked to gut dysbiosis and inflammation in animal models, few epidemiologic studies have examined pesticides in relation to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Obj...
Article
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Background Nitrate and nitrite ingestion has been linked to kidney cancer, possibly via the endogenous formation of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds. These exposures might also contribute to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Objectives We investigated associations of drinking water nitrate and dietary nitrate and nitrite intakes (total and by food t...
Article
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Epidemiologic data on insecticide exposures and breast cancer risk are inconclusive and mostly from high-income countries. Using data from 1071 invasive pathologically confirmed breast cancer cases and 2096 controls from the Ghana Breast Health Study conducted from 2013 to 2015, we investigated associations with mosquito control products to reduce...
Article
Background: Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide worldwide and has been implicated in the development of certain hematologic cancers. Although mechanistic studies in human cells and animals support the genotoxic effects of glyphosate, evidence in human populations is scarce. Objectives: We evaluated the association between lifetime occ...
Article
The transferability and clinical value of genetic risk scores (GRSs) across populations remain limited due to an imbalance in genetic studies across ancestrally diverse populations. Here we conducted a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of 156,319 prostate cancer cases and 788,443 controls of European, African, Asian and Hispanic men, ref...
Article
More than 200 genetic variants have been independently associated with prostate cancer risk. Studies among farmers have also observed increased prostate cancer risk associated with exposure to specific organophosphate (fonofos, terbufos, malathion, dimethoate) and organochlorine (aldrin, chlordane) insecticides. We examined the joint associations b...
Article
Understanding the relationships between exposure and disease incidence is an important problem in environmental epidemiology. Typically, a large number of these exposures are measured, and it is found either that a few exposures transmit risk or that each exposure transmits a small amount of risk, but, taken together, these may pose a substantial d...
Article
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Background Genome-wide studies of gene–environment interactions (G×E) may identify variants associated with disease risk in conjunction with lifestyle/environmental exposures. We conducted a genome-wide G×E analysis of ~ 7.6 million common variants and seven lifestyle/environmental risk factors for breast cancer risk overall and for estrogen recept...
Article
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Background Polygenic risk score (PRS), calculated based on genome-wide association studies (GWASs), can improve breast cancer (BC) risk assessment. To date, most BC GWASs have been performed in individuals of European (EUR) ancestry, and the generalisation of EUR-based PRS to other populations is a major challenge. In this study, we examined the pe...
Article
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Purpose Some pesticides may increase the risk of certain lymphoid malignancies, but few studies have examined Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). In this exploratory study, we examined associations between agricultural use of 22 individual active ingredients and 13 chemical groups and HL incidence. Methods We used data from three agricultural cohorts participa...
Article
Objectives: Smartphones are increasingly used to collect real-time information on time-varying exposures. We developed and deployed an application (app) to evaluate the feasibility of using smartphones to collect real-time information on intermittent agricultural activities and to characterize agricultural task variability in a longitudinal study...
Article
Background: There are conflicting data on whether nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with susceptibility to pancreatic cancer (PC). Using Mendelian randomization (MR), we investigated the relationship between genetic predisposition to NAFLD and risk for PC. Methods: Data from genome-wide association studies within the Pancrea...
Article
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Indoor home dust microbial communities, important contributors to human health, are shaped by environmental factors, including farm-related exposures. Advanced metagenomic whole genome shotgun sequencing (WGS) improves detection and characterization of microbiota in the indoor built-environment dust microbiome, compared to conventional 16S rRNA amp...
Article
Background/objective: Farmers conduct numerous tasks with potential for endotoxin exposure. As a first step to characterize endotoxin exposure for farmers in the Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect in Agriculture (BEEA) Study, we used published data to estimate task-specific endotoxin concentrations. Methods: We extracted published data on task-sp...
Article
Background: We developed an algorithm to quantitatively estimate endotoxin exposure for farmers in the Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect in Agriculture (BEEA) Study. Methods: The algorithm combined task intensity estimates derived from published data with questionnaire responses on activity duration to estimate task-specific cumulative endotoxin...
Preprint
Indoor home dust microbial communities, important contributors to human health outcomes, are shaped by environmental factors, including farm-related exposures. Detection and characterization of microbiota are influenced by sequencing methodology; however, it is unknown if advanced metagenomic whole genome shotgun sequencing (WGS) can detect novel a...
Article
Pesticide dust concentrations in homes have been previously associated with occupational and home/garden use of pesticides, hygiene practices, and other factors. This study evaluated the relationship between self-reported use of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and house dust concentrations and these factors in the Biomarkers of Exposure and...
Article
Background: Previous epidemiologic studies have reported increased risks of certain cancers in relation to specific pesticide exposures, although the mechanisms underlying many of these associations remain poorly understood. Within the Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect in Agriculture (BEEA) study, a molecular epidemiologic investigation of pesticid...
Article
Background: The shared inherited genetic contribution to risk of different cancers is not fully known. In this study, we leverage results from twelve cancer genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to quantify pair-wise genome-wide genetic correlations across cancers and identify novel cancer susceptibility loci. Methods: We collected GWAS summary...
Article
Objective: We performed a meta-analysis of epidemiological results for the association between occupational exposure as a firefighter and cancer as part of the broader evidence synthesis work of the IARCMonographs program. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted to identify cohort studies of firefighters followed for cancer inciden...
Article
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Background & aims: Incidence rates of liver cancer in most populations are two to three times higher among men than women. The higher rates among men have led to the suggestion that androgens are related to increased risk whereas oestrogens are related to decreased risk. This hypothesis was investigated in the present study via a nested case-contr...
Article
A pilot study among farming households in eastern Iowa was conducted to assess human exposure to neonicotinoids (NEOs). The study was in a region with intense crop and livestock production and where groundwater is vulnerable to surface-applied contaminants. In addition to paired outdoor (hydrant) water and indoor (tap) water samples from private we...
Article
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Background Low-frequency variants play an important role in breast cancer (BC) susceptibility. Gene-based methods can increase power by combining multiple variants in the same gene and help identify target genes. Methods We evaluated the potential of gene-based aggregation in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium cohorts including 83,471 cases...
Article
In the United States and globally, contaminant exposure in unregulated private-well point-of-use tapwater (TW) is a recognized public-health data gap and an obstacle to both risk-management and homeowner decision making. To help address the lack of data on broad contaminant exposures in private-well TW from hydrologically-vulnerable (alluvial, kars...
Article
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Background: Glyphosate is the most widely applied herbicide worldwide, and its use has been associated with increased risks of certain hematopoietic cancers in epidemiologic studies. Animal and in vitro experiments suggest that glyphosate may induce oxidative stress, a key characteristic of carcinogens; however, evidence in human populations remai...
Article
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Objectives Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour are associated with higher breast cancer risk in observational studies, but ascribing causality is difficult. Mendelian randomisation (MR) assesses causality by simulating randomised trial groups using genotype. We assessed whether lifelong physical activity or sedentary time, assessed using ge...
Article
Background Farms represent complex environments for respiratory exposures including hays, grains and pesticides. Little is known about the impact of these exposures on women’s respiratory health. We evaluated the association of farm exposures with allergic and non-allergic wheeze among women in the Agricultural Health Study, a study of farmers and...
Article
Background Previous studies suggested associations between the oral microbiome and lung cancer, but studies were predominantly cross-sectional and underpowered. Methods Using a case-cohort design, 1,306 incident lung cancer cases were identified in the Agricultural Health Study, NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, and Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and O...
Article
Background Reproductive factors have been shown to be differentially associated with risk of estrogen receptor (ER) positive and ER-negative breast cancer. However, their associations with intrinsic-like subtypes are less clear. Methods Analyses included up to 23,353 cases, and 71,072 controls pooled from 31 population-based case-control or cohort...
Article
Objectives: Pyrethroid insecticides have been linked with multiple health outcomes. One study reported an association with increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Given the widespread use of pyrethroids, these findings warrant confirmation. We explored associations of permethrin/pyrethroid use with overall and cause-specific mortality am...
Article
We describe drinking water sources and water quality for a large agricultural cohort. We used questionnaire data from the Agricultural Health Study (N = 89,655), a cohort of licensed pesticide applicators and their spouses in Iowa (IA) and North Carolina (NC), to ascertain drinking water source at enrollment (1993–1997). For users of public water s...
Article
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Background: By-products are formed when disinfectants react with organic matter in source water. The most common class of disinfection by-products, trihalomethanes (THMs), have been linked to bladder cancer. Several studies have shown exposure-response associations with THMs in drinking water and bladder cancer risk. Few epidemiologic studies have...
Article
Background: Disinfection byproducts (DBPs) and N-nitroso compounds (NOC), formed endogenously after nitrate ingestion, are suspected endometrial carcinogens, but epidemiological studies are limited. Objectives: We investigated the relationship of these exposures with endometrial cancer risk in a large prospective cohort. Methods: Among postmen...
Article
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Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 susceptibility loci for breast cancer, but these variants explain less than a fifth of the disease risk. Although gene–environment interactions have been proposed to account for some of the remaining heritability, few studies have empirically assessed this. We obtained genotype an...
Article
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Background: Dream-enacting behavior is a characteristic feature of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, the most specific prodromal marker of synucleinopathies. Pesticide exposure may be associated with dream-enacting behaviors, but epidemiological evidence is limited. Objectives: To examine high pesticide exposure events in relation to d...
Article
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Germline copy number variants (CNVs) are pervasive in the human genome but potential disease associations with rare CNVs have not been comprehensively assessed in large datasets. We analysed rare CNVs in genes and non-coding regions for 86,788 breast cancer cases and 76,122 controls of European ancestry with genome-wide array data. Gene burden test...
Article
Few studies have evaluated the validity of self-report of work activities because of challenges in obtaining objective measures. In this study, farmers’ recall of the previous day’s agricultural activities was compared to activities observed by field staff during air monitoring. Recall was assessed in 32 farmers from the Biomarkers of Exposure and...
Article
Full-text available
Background Agricultural work can expose workers to potentially hazardous agents including known and suspected carcinogens. This study aimed to evaluate cancer incidence in male and female agricultural workers in an international consortium, AGRICOH, relative to their respective general populations. Methods The analysis included eight cohorts that...
Conference Paper
Objective Free-text job descriptions from lifetime occupational history questionnaires are the starting point for nearly all occupational exposure assessment activities in epidemiologic studies. This information is used to code job descriptions into standardized occupation classification (SOC) systems. We describe updates to SOCcer, an algorithm th...
Conference Paper
Introduction Permethrin is one of the most widely used insecticides in the United States. Previous studies have reported associations of permethrin use with increased risk of multiple myeloma (MM) and its precursor, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). Biological mechanisms underlying these associations remain unclear, with so...
Conference Paper
Introduction/Objective Farming is a highly variable occupation, with many tasks and exposures, making exposure assessment for epidemiologic studies challenging. We developed and deployed a smartphone app to collect real-time information on intermittent agricultural activities to characterize farming task variability. Methods We recruited 19 male I...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Introduction Hodgkin lymphoma is a rare cancer of B-lymphocytes diagnosed in approximately 80,000 individuals worldwide each year. While the use of some pesticides may increase the risk of other lymphoid malignancies, associations with Hodgkin lymphoma remain poorly understood. Objectives We investigated associations of use of 22 pesticide active...
Conference Paper
Introduction Endotoxin has been hypothesized to partly account for the observed deficit of lung cancer in farmers; however, most epidemiologic studies have relied on surrogate metrics, such as number of animals. Objective To obtain task-specific estimates of endotoxin exposure for agricultural tasks using meta-regression models of published data....
Article
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Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have discovered 20 risk loci in the human genome where germline variants associate with risk of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in populations of European ancestry. Here, we fine-mapped one such locus on chr16q23.1 (rs72802365, p = 2.51 × 10⁻¹⁷, OR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.31–1.40) and identified colocaliza...
Article
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Abstract Background Given the high heterogeneity among breast tumors, associations between common germline genetic variants and survival that may exist within specific subgroups could go undetected in an unstratified set of breast cancer patients. Methods We performed genome-wide association analyses within 15 subgroups of breast cancer patients ba...
Article
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Background: Despite a modest association between tobacco smoking and breast cancer risk reported by recent epidemiological studies, it is still equivocal whether smoking is causally related to breast cancer risk. Methods: We applied Mendelian randomisation (MR) to evaluate a potential causal effect of cigarette smoking on breast cancer risk. Bot...
Article
Background: Some pesticides are immunotoxic and have been associated with an increased risk of immune-mediated diseases. The risk of shingles, the clinical reactivation of varicella-zoster virus, increases with aging and immunosuppression; little is known about its associations with pesticides. Objective: We examined the use of agricultural pest...