- Children who live next to a petrol station are four times
more likely to develop acute leukaemia than other children in the same
area, suggests new research.
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- The small study, carried out at four sites in France,
looked at 280 children with leukaemia and a control group of 285 children,
all younger than 15 years. The childrenís mothers were given a questionnaire
relating to their lifestyle.
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- The researchers found that children living next door
to a petrol station or automotive garage had a quadrupled risk of leukaemia.
And the risk of developing acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia was seven
times greater compared with children who lived in the same area, but not
next to a petrol station.
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- ìI was very surprised that living near a petrol
station had such a high risk,î says Jacqueline Clavel from the National
Institute of Health and Medical Research in Villejuif, France, who led
the study.
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- ìThe longer the child had lived in the vicinity
of the petrol station, the higher their relative risk was. Prenatal exposure
also raised the relative risk.î
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- Rubber factory
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- Clavel suspects benzene in petrol caused the rise in
cancer risk, although she says further studies need to be done.
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- ìThe link between benzene and leukaemia has been
shown for workers in a rubber factory, but the benzene levels are very
high in that instance. Exposure to benzene is much lower for children near
a petrol station, so it was surprising,î she told New Scientist.
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- Richard McNally, from Cancer Research UK's paediatric
and familial cancer research group, says that while the findings are interesting,
they should be treated with caution. ìThe study examined a relatively
small number of leukaemia cases, and the fact that it was based on interviews
leaves it open to influences such as inaccuracy in the recollections of
the mothers interviewed,î he says.
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- Although it is the most common childhood cancer in the
western world, acute leukaemia is rare, with four new cases per 100,000
children each year. The majority of cases occur in two-year-old infants,
but more than 80 per cent of children make a full recovery.
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- Journal reference: Occupational and Environmental Medicine
(vol 61, p 773)
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- © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
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- http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996301
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