Childhood leukemia and power stations in Basrah governorate : an ecological study

Abstract EN

The reports of leukemia among children in Basrah are of continuing interest, as is the possibility that electromagnetic field is one of the causative factors.

The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between the distribution of power stations in Basrah and incidence of childhood leukemia.

An ecological study designed to investigate the correlation between the distribution of power stations in Basrah and five years average incidence rate of leukemia among children aged below 15 years in Basrah.

This study found ecological correlation between incidence rate of leukemiaamong children in Basrah and location of power stations in Basrah.

It can be seen that, Al-Hartha (where higher level of exposure to EMFs) have higher incidence rates of childhood leukemia, the Spearman correlation coefficient between the location of power stations and incidence rate of childhood leukemia in Basrah, was high (r = 1.0) and statistically significant (p = 0.01).In conclusion the power to generate hypothesis about the relationship and causality of location of power stations and leukemia risk is high.

There is still insufficient scientific knowledge, and new analytical studies are needed to clarify a possible leukemogenic effect of residential exposure to electromagnetic field.