Gasoline consumption and leukemia mortality and morbidity in 19 European countries: an ecological study

It is widely recognized that exposure to benzene is a risk factor for leukemia; however, much remains to be clarified about the possible long-term health effects of exposures to low concentrations of benzene. With this in mind an ecological study was carried out in which both gasoline consumption data and data on leukemia mortality and incidence were collected for 19 European countries. Gasoline consumption was taken as an indication for exposure to benzene in ambient air. There appeared to be a weak inverse association between temporal trends in gasoline consumption and temporal trends in leukemia mortality. On the other hand, a weak positive association was found between the age-adjusted myeloid leukemia incidence in 14 areas and the gasoline consumption per square kilometer. However, both findings can easily be explained by other factors, such as changes in prognosis or differences in leukemia case ascertainment. This study is not supportive of an association between gasoline consumption and reported leukemia incidence and mortality rates.