Clean homes: a cause of childhood leukaemia?

Our obsession with hygiene and a lack of exposure to bacteria is making babies more susceptible to the blood cancer leukaemia, Britain’s leading expert on the disease has claimed.

In a new paper, Professor Mel Greaves, of The Institute of Cancer Research, says acute lymphoblastic leukaemia – the most common form of childhood cancer, affecting one in 2,000 children – is caused by a combination of factors.

One in 20 children are born with a genetic mutation that puts them at risk of it. They will be fine if their immune systems develop properly – which happens if they encounter benign household bacteria and viruses in their first year. But according to Greaves, babies are increasingly being denied this exposure as a result of improved overall hygiene, a decline in breastfeeding and smaller families.

As a result, when those with the mutation encounter common infections such as flu, their immune systems create a glut of infectionfighting white blood cells which can trigger leukaemia. Greaves advises parents to “be less fussy about infections” and to bring babies into contact with “as many children as possible”.