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Household insecticides may double Washington:
Pregnant women or mothers with very young children may well decide
to do away with fumigating their homes, or spraying their gardens with
insecticides, with a study revealing that exposure to such chemicals can
double the risk of children being afflicted with leukemia. The study carried
out by French researchers has been published in Occupational and Environmental
Medicine. Their findings based on 280 children newly diagnosed with acute
leukaemia and a further 288 children matched for sex and age, but free
of the disease, followed detailed face to face interviews with each of
their mothers, and included questions about the employment history of
both parents, the use of insecticides in the home and garden, and the
use of insecticidal shampoos to eradicate head lice. They found that exposure
to garden insecticides and fungicides as a child was associated with a
more than doubling of the risk of acute childhood leukaemia, as was the
use of insecticidal shampoos to eradicate head lice. The authors warn
that no one agent could be singled out, and a causal relation between
insecticides and the development of acute childhood leukaemia "remains
questionable". "However, the consistency of our results and the results
from previous studies suggests that it may be opportune to consider preventive
action." they added.
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