What are the causes of childhood leukaemia?
Childhood leukaemia has been steadily rising since the beginning of the last century, though the reasons for this are not clear. It is possible that children with weaker immune systems began to survive long enough to develop this sort of serious illness, when previously they would have succumbed to other childhood diseases, such as measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, TB, that have become less serious with the advent of mass immunisation policies. Proximity to powerlines and levels of magnetic field exposure of 0.4µT or more have been linked with an increased risk of childhood leukaemia. A previously unknown peak in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) between the ages of 2 and 6 began to appear in the developing world at the same time as electricity began to be used as a widespread source of power. Before 1950, childhood leukaemia was nearly always fatal. Fortunately, treatment programmes have improved dramatically, so that most children diagnosed with this devastating diseas
