Leukaemia risk for kids living near petrol stops

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ICU.

Saw this and although it is a small study in one country I beleive this link should be researched further.

Leukaemia risk for kids living near petrol stops

12:33 19 August 04 NewScientist.com news service 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.

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 children's mothers were given a questionnaire relating to their lifestyle.

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.

"I was very surprised that living near a petrol station had such a high risk," says Jacqueline Clavel from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Villejuif, France, who led the study.

"The 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."

Full story here http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996301

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