Leukemia and Childhood Cancers Not Related to Nuclear Power Plant's Proximity

A recent study states that young children living around nuclear power plants are not highly prone to childhood cancers like leukaemia or non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

This study was conducted by researchers at the Childhood Cancer Research Group in Oxford. About 10,000 British children below five years of age, who were diagnosed with cancers such as leukaemia between 1962 and 2007 were analyzed by the researchers.

The researchers utilized the information regarding cases of childhood cancer available in the National Registry of Childhood Tumours, which maintained records of all children born in Britain who were diagnosed since 1962.

The distance from the nearest nuclear power plant was measured by the scientists at the birth of the child and after getting diagnosed with childhood leukaemia. It was concluded that there was no noticeable higher risk related to the proximity to a nuclear power plant.

"The incidence of childhood leukaemia near nuclear installations in Great Britain has been a concern ever since the 1980s when an excess of cancer in young people near Sellafield was reported in a television programme," Dr. John Bithell, a lead author of the study and  honorary research fellow at the Childhood Cancer Research Group said in a press release.

"Since then, there have been conflicting reports in the U.K. and Europe as to whether there is an increased incidence of childhood cancer near nuclear power plants. Our case-control study has considered the birth records for nearly every case of childhood leukaemia born in Britain and, reassuringly, has found no such correlation with proximity to nuclear power plants," he said further.

Leukaemia is said to be the twelfth most common cancer in the U.K. and around 500 new cases of were Leukaemia were detected in British children below the age of 15 in the year 2010.

"It's heartening that this study supports the findings of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), that being born or living near a nuclear power station doesn't lead to more cases of leukaemia and similar cancers in children under five in the U.K.," said Hazel Nunn, Cancer Research U.K.'s head of health information.

 "But these results can't rule out any possible risk, so it's still important that we continue to monitor both radiation levels near nuclear power plants and rates of cancer among people who live close by," Nunn added.