People living near oil refineries and production plants are more likely to develop blood cancer. The plants release benzene, a cancer-causing chemical that increases the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Researchers made the association after they analysed the rising number of cases of the cancer in the metropolitan regions of Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah in Georgia. They discovered that for every mile further away from an industrial plant, cases of the cancer fell by 0.31 per cent.
Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta reckon that benzene from the plants is being released into the air, groundwater supply and soil.
(Source: Cancer, 2013; doi: 10.1002/cncr.28233).
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