Just found this interesting article:
<http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040819/12/f0pow.html> which discusses a study
that indicates an increased risk of Leukemia for children living near a
petrol station. It suggests that it's due to the benzene in the petrol.
Yet another nail in the coffin of mineral fuels maybe? Or perhaps more
like another growth ring on the tree with which the coffin will
eventually be made.
Full text below.
Donald
Leukaemia risk for kids living near petrol stops
By Gaia Vince
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 childrenåâs 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.
åãI was very surprised that living near a petrol station had such a
high risk,åä says Jacqueline Clavel from the National Institute of
Health and Medical Research in Villejuif, France, who led the study.
åãThe 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.åä
Rubber factory
Clavel suspects benzene in petrol caused the rise in cancer risk,
although she says further studies need to be done.
åãThe 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,åä she told New Scientist .
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. åãThe 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,åä he says.
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.
Journal reference: Occupational and Environmental Medicine (vol 61, p 773)
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