Interesting study finding child cancer rates increase as the number of cars passing the home daily increased. For example, when the number of vehicles traveling past the home per day was between 500 and 5,000, children living in the home were 60% more likely to develop cancer, compared to children in homes with less than 500 cars passing per day. The blood cancer leukemia was also 20% higher. When the number of vehicles passing the home were above 5,000 per day, children experienced an even higher 80% increased risk of cancer and 170% increased rate of leukemia. When traffic reached 10,000 vehicles per day, children had a 200% greater risk of all cancers and nearly 400% greater risk of leukemia. The distance from the roadway to the home was not specified in the study but implied as being close and most likely within 100 feet of the residence. Nevertheless, this clearly demonstrates the dramatic harm to children living near busy roadway traffic.
This study certainly raises a red flag regarding the safety of living near busy roadway traffic. Previous studies have shown the chemical benzene (common in gasoline) is linked to damaging bone marrow and increasing related cancers. This study would also suggest an increased likelihood of remission and/or life expectancy for a child with cancer could be achieved by moving away from the residence, thereby reducing exposure to benzene and other toxic fuel by-products.
ABSTRACT
Data from a recently completed case-referent study of childhood cancer were used to explore a possible role of environmental exposures from traffic exhaust. The street addresses of 328 cancer patients and 262 population-based referents were used to assign traffic density (vehicles per day) as a marker of potential exposure to motor vehicle exhaust. An odds ratio of 1.7 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.0-2.8] was found for the total number of childhood cancers and 2.1 (95% CI 1.1-4.0) for leukemias in a contrast of high and low traffic density addresses (greater than or equal to 500 versus less than 500 vehicles per day). Stronger associations were found with a traffic density cutoff score of greater than or equal to 10,000 vehicles per day, with imprecise odds ratios of 3.1 (95% CI 1.2-8.0) and 4.7 (95% CI 1.6-13.5) for the total number of cancers and leukemias, respectively. Adjustment for suspected risk factors for childhood cancer did not substantially change these results. Though the results are inconclusive, the identified association warrants further evaluation.