Research published today in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine supports previous findings which suggest those working in the farming industry have an increased risk of developing a serious illness.

The research, conducted by scientists in New Zealand, revealed children who grow up on a livestock farm are at an increased risk of developing blood cancers as an adult. The researchers examined 94,000 deaths from 1998-2003, including 3,000 attributed to haematological (blood) cancers, and looked at the occupation of the deceased and their parents.

They found the risks of developing conditions including leukaemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma were 22 per cent higher if a person had spent their early years on a livestock farm, with those who had grown up on poultry farms facing a risk three times as high as those who had grown up elsewhere. This trend was reversed for people working on livestock farms as adults, with the exception of cattle farm workers, whose risk of illness was also three times higher than average.

The researchers discovered that those growing up on an arable farm had a 20 per cent lower risk of illness, although people working on arable farms as adults had a 50 per cent increased risk. As the data examined in the study is purely correlative at this stage, the researchers at Massey University, Wellington, said that further investigations would need to be conducted before any kind of cause and effect can be established. In other studies looking at asthma, eczema, hayfever and other common cancers, farmers and those growing up on farms have been found to be more resistant, however, the Massey University researchers said their data “suggests that farming exposures in adulthood and childhood play independent roles in the development of haematological cancers”.

Previous studies have found adult farmers have an increased risk of developing blood cancers, with researchers speculating the possibility of exposure to pesticides or infections as a result of contact with farm animals. However, this study is the first to link later illness with growing up in a farming environment.

The scientists speculated that the increased risk “may be through, for example, exposure to specific viruses or other biological exposures that indirectly increase haematological cancer risk by modulating the immune system.” The concluded, “Additional studies are needed to further investigate this hypothesis.”