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A study conducted by the scientists from the Massey University proved that women who work in the agricultural sector have higher chances of developing leukaemia. This finding related to women’s health is from an analysis which was released very recently by the Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University.
The researchers started collecting the data for the analysis purposes in 2003. They did the data collection by interviewing about 225 patients who had this condition and were between the age group of 25 to 75.
During the data collection, the researchers noticed that, the risk of leukaemia was about 4 to 5 times higher among those who had the occupations as nursery growers and market gardeners, when compared to the general population. Farmers who grow crops for the market as well as growers of field and vegetables have varying levels of risk of developing leukaemia.
According to Dave McLean, the growers and market farmers face a risk which is about 1.8 times more than the average risk faced by the general population. He also quoted that the reason behind this elevated risk may be due to the exposure of these people to the insecticides and pesticides.
The researchers also indicated that women who were in this field had 3.4 times higher risk of having leukaemia when compared to men farmers and growers. The difference in the rate of risk between the genders is not yet clear.
These findings have been published by the Oxford University Press for the International Epidemiological Association.
