Children who grow up on livestock farms are at an increased risk of developing a blood cancer later in life, a study has found.
Poultry farms carried the greatest risk, with those raised on one three times more likely to develop a blood cancer compared to those who had not.
Researchers at Massey University in New Zealand analysed the cause of death of 114,000 men and women between 1998 and 2003 who were resident in New Zealand. The researchers used death certificates to establish the occupations of the deceased and their parents.
More than 3,000 deaths were attributed to blood cancers such as leukaemia, multiple myeloma, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The overall risk of developing a blood cancer was found to be 22 per cent higher for those who grew up on a livestock farm compared with those who had grown up elsewhere.
Livestock
Growing up on poultry farm carried a three times higher risk of developing a blood cancer, but being raised on an arable farm conferred an almost 20 per cent lower risk.
However, working in crop farming as an adult increased the risk of a blood cancer by 50 per cent.
Working on a livestock farm as an adult also seemed to lessen the risk by 20 per cent, with the exception of beef cattle farming, where the risk was three times as high.
Previous studies suggested that farmers are at increased risk of blood cancers scientists said, but little research has looked at potential risk factors in early life.
The researcher suggested that exposure to particular types of viruses in childhood may affect the immune system’s response, leading to an increased risk of a blood cancer later in life.
But they also cautioned that further studies will be needed before a definitive cause and effect can be established.
The study is published online in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
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Children raised on livestock farms are at significantly greater risk of developing blood cancers — such as leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma — later in life, a new study contends.
The researchers pointed out that further studies will be needed before a definitive cause and effect can be established, but they suggested that exposure to particular viruses during childhood may modify the immune system response and result in a higher risk for blood cancer in adulthood.
In conducting the study, published in the July 28 online edition of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, researchers compiled information from 114,000 death certificates for people between 35 and 85 years of age who died between 1998 and 2003 in New Zealand.
The study found that over the five-year period, more than 3,000 deaths were attributed to blood cancers. Moreover, the researchers revealed that growing up on a livestock farm was linked to a higher risk. They noted, however, that people who were raised on farms with crops were not more likely to develop blood cancer.
Overall, the risk of developing a blood cancer was 22 percent higher for those who grew up on a livestock farm than those who did not, according to Andrea ‘t Mannetje, of the Centre for Public Health Research at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand, and colleagues.
Being raised on a poultry farm carried the greatest risk, the researchers noted. Those who had spent their childhood living on a poultry farm were three times more likely to develop a blood cancer than others.
On the flip side, growing up on a crop farm came with a nearly 20 percent lower risk of developing blood cancer, the investigators found.