Indoor Pesticide Use Increases Blood Cancer Risk In Children, Study Warns

Raising alarm over the use of pesticides indoors, a new study has found increased risk of leukemia and lymphoma in children.

According to UPI, researchers found that indoor pesticides use was linked with 47 percent increased risk of leukemia and 43 percent increased risk of lymphoma. The risk calculation was made in the study, a meta-analysis of 16 previous studies.

"Exposure to residential indoor insecticides but not outdoor insecticides during childhood was significantly associated with an increased risk of childhood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma, but not childhood brain tumors," researchers said in a press release.

The study did not find any connection between increased risk of cancer and outdoor use of pesticides. A small risk increase was associated with herbicide use outdoors.

Childhood cancer is considered rare but in the past few decades the rate of incidents is said to have increased, with vast improvement in cure and survival rates. Researchers of the study advised caution in use of pesticides at home.

"Additional research is needed to confirm the association between residential indoor pesticide exposures and childhood cancers. Meanwhile, preventive measures should be considered to reduce children's exposure to pesticides at home," they wrote in the journal Pediatrics.