Heamatology ( The effect of the environmental pollution in the Literature review

Heamatology ( The effect of the environmental pollution in the development of Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - Literature review Example Steffen et al (2004) anticipated Belson et al’s finding about the weak link between exposure to hydrocarbons and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia among children. Their study investigated the impact of maternal occupational exposure to hydrocarbons when pregnant and leukaemia and found a weak link. According Steffen et al, residential traffic density has a significant association with child leukaemia. This manifested in the places where child leukaemia victims lived near a petrol station or a repair garage. The association suggested a causal association between exposure to benzene emitting sources and acute childhood lymphocytic leukaemia. Behren et al (2008) did not find a significant association between living in high traffic density areas and child acute lymphocytic leukaemia. They argued the resultant inconsistency between their findings on the topic and other studies’ findings could have been because of methodological differences. However, they brought in a plausible explanation to the inconsistency when they cited that different places and regions have varying traffic volumes and emission profiles. Traffic volumes and emission profiles of different places also vary with time and are therefore never stable. Behren et al also explained that the critical time for an environmental exposure to that is enough to cause the development of leukaemia in children is not known. Raaschou-Nielsen et al (2001) investigated the impact of exposure to traffic-related air pollution on the risk of developing childhood cancer. They concluded that traffic-related air pollution in residences does not cause leukaemia in children. This finding further supported the suppressed association between the two variables. However, these authors explained that their selection of cancer cases and control children from registries that were population-based could have been a source of bias in their study. They cited that there was a