UCLA researchers find potential link between auto pollution, some childhood cancers

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoc--urf040913.php

Public release date: 9-Apr-2013
Contact: Shaun Mason
University of California - Los Angeles

Scientists from UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health led by Julia Heck, an assistant researcher in the school's epidemiology department and a member of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, have found a possible link between exposure to traffic-related air pollution and several childhood cancers.

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The researchers found that heightened exposure to traffic-related air pollution was associated with increases in three rare types of childhood cancer: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (white blood cell cancer), germ-cell tumors (cancers of the testicles, ovaries and other organs) and retinoblastoma (eye cancer), particularly bilateral retinoblastoma, in which both eyes are affected.

The pollution-exposure estimates were highly correlated across pregnancy trimesters and the first year of life, meaning that even in areas of high exposure, no particular period stood out as a higher-exposure time. This, the scientists said, made it difficult to determine if one period of exposure was more dangerous than any other.

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