Alcohol during pregnancy may cause childhood leukemia

Researchers in the UK have found from studies that when a mother drinking alcoholic beverages during term it can increase the chances of the baby developing leukemia sometime during childhood. This is supposed to be linked to a type rare type of leukemia known as acute myeloid leukemia, AML. Leukemia is the most common cancer in children, without known causes. Tests were done using meta-analysis showing that maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy is associated with a significant increased risk of AML in young children. Leukemia affects 20 to 60 cases per million, with more affluent countries generally having higher rates than less developed countries. In a statement made by Dr. Julie Ross, director of pediatric epidemiology and clinical research at U of Minnesota, there are around 700 childhood cases of AML a year in the US. Although, in the US, the alcohol consumption during pregnancy is below the average with 12 percent where Sweden is 30, France is 52, Australia is 59 and Russia is 60 percent.

I thought this post was interesting because will all the information that is available and given to mothers it is crazy to think that they just don't listen and put their children at a risk in such ways. Not only is a risk of AML, there are a countless number of ways that children can be affected by such actions. Its preposterous.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/188000.php