Pollution Causing Childhood Leukemia?

From a
press release from the organization
Children With
Leukaemia:

Research suggests unborn children may be at risk from environmental pollution.

New research being presented at a conference
opening in London (Monday 6 September) shows that harmful environmental agents
can cross the placenta to reach the developing foetus.

The incidence of childhood
leukaemia in Britain has increased dramatically during the last century. This increase has mainly affected the under five age
group, in whom the risk increased by more than 50 per cent in the second half of the century alone.

The causes of leukaemia in children are not well understood and the reasons for the increasing incidence are unknown. This is the driving force behind the conference – Childhood leukaemia: incidence, causal mechanisms and prevention –
which is being hosted by CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA, Britain’s leading charity devoted to the conquest of the disease.