Farming link to future blood cancer

Thursday July 28th, 2011

Living on a farm could raise a child's risk of blood cancer, new research suggests.

Farming has repeatedly been linked to an increased risk of adult blood cancer including leukaemia, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease. This could be due to exposure to pesticides or exposure to infectious agents through contact with farm animals, say Dr Andrea Mannetje of Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand, and colleagues.

In the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, they outline their study of 94,054 death records from 1998 to 2003 of New Zealand residents, with records of parental occupation.

Overall there were 3,119 haematological cancer deaths and 90,935 deaths from other causes.

Analysis showed that growing up on a livestock farm was linked to a 22 per cent increased risk. The risk was highest for poultry farms (nearly trebled), but growing up on a crop farm did not raise the risk.

However, adult exposure to crop farming was linked to a 49 per cent raised risk, but livestock farming was not, with the exception of beef cattle farming which appeared to treble the risk.

The authors write: "The results of this mortality study indicate that growing up on a farm is associated with an increased risk of haematological cancer in adulthood. This study suggests a role for early life biological exposures in the development of haematological cancer."

They suggest that the increased risk could be related to the lower rate of allergies in children of farmers. Some studies indicate that allergies boost the immune system's ability to detect and kill cancer cells.

Mannetje, A., Eng, A. and Pearce, N. Farming, growing up on a farm, and haematological cancer mortality. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, published online July 28, 2011.

Tags: Allergies & Asthma | Australia | Cancer

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