UCLA Researchers Find Potential Link Between Air Pollution And Childhood Cancer
WESTWOOD (CBSLA.com) — UCLA researchers have found a possible link between auto pollution exposure and several childhood cancers, officials at the university's Fielding School of Public Health said Tuesday.
In this first-of-its-kind study, researchers included 3,950 children in the California cancer registry who were born between 1998 and 2007, officials said.
Researches examined pollution levels in the homes of pregnant women during each trimester and in the first year of a child's life.
"The estimates encompassed information on gasoline and diesel vehicles within a 1,500-meter radius buffer, traffic volumes, roadway geometry, vehicle emission rates, and weather," officials said.
Their findings showed that increases in exposure to traffic-related air pollution were associated with increases in childhood leukemia, germ-cell tumors (cancers of the testicles, ovaries, and other organs), eye cancer and disease affecting the eyes.
The study is still in early stages and researchers caution that their findings must be replicated in further studies.
