Contact:
Julian Mattocks
Phone: +43-1-81140-308
E-Mail: mattocks@pressetext.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Birmingham (pte011/17.01.2005/10:40) - Being exposed to environmental pollution while in the womb could increase a child's risk of getting cancer, a recent study suggests. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, children born near emission "hotspots" were more likely to die of cancer before the age of 16 than others. Despite the study's lack of conclusive evidence, the author, George Knox from the University of Birmingham http://www.bham.ac.uk , believes the threat is very real. However, cancer experts warn that the research contains many flaws and are urging caution.
Knox studied a chemical emissions map for the United Kingdom for 2001 and details of children under 16 who had died from leukaemia and other cancers between 1966 and 1980. He suggested that children born within a 1km radius of emissions hotspots of particular chemicals were two to four times as likely to die of cancer before reaching their 16th birthday as other children. Proximity to emissions of 1,3-butadiene and carbon monoxide, which are produced by vehicle exhaust, carried the highest risks.
According to Knox, mothers can inhale environmental toxins and pass them on to the foetus across the placenta. "It's a fair assumption that one or more of these substances are harmful. We know several are carcinogenic (cancer causing) in animals," he said. Knox acknowledged the fact that emissions had gone down over the years and that there was a gap spanning decades between the deaths he looked at and the pollution data. It was also more of a concern on the population level as a whole, and not on individual people, the scientist admitted. "The risk of a random child having a cancer is about one in 1,000. In the hotspots it is two to four in 1,000 so it's still a low risk," Knox added.
However, cancer experts remain sceptical of Knox's study. "We do not consider that this paper demonstrates that atmospheric pollution plays any key role in causing childhood leukaemia," a spokesman of the Leukaemia Research Fund said. "It uses 2001 airborne emissions data but is relating this to births up to 40 years earlier. We would not wish parents to be made to feel that they may, in any way, have been to blame for their child's illness," he added.
(end)
|
|
