There is no guaranteed way to prevent leukemia, but you can meaningfully lower your risk by addressing the lifestyle and environmental factors tied to the disease. Leukemia accounts for about 3.2% of all new cancer cases in the U.S., with roughly 67,790 new diagnoses expected in 2026. Unlike some cancers with a single dominant cause, leukemia has four major subtypes and a mix of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle risk factors, some of which you can control and some you cannot.
Why Leukemia Is Hard to Prevent
Many leukemia cases arise from genetic changes that happen randomly during cell division or from inherited predispositions that no lifestyle change can override. That said, established risk factors include benzene exposure, high-dose ionizing radiation, certain chemotherapy drugs, smoking, obesity, and dietary patterns. Focusing on the factors you can change won’t eliminate your risk entirely, but it shifts the odds in your favor, especially for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the subtype with the strongest links to modifiable exposures.
Quit or Avoid Smoking
Cigarette smoke contains benzene and other chemicals that damage the DNA in blood-forming cells. A meta-analysis of case-control studies estimated that smoking raises AML risk by about 30%, and that roughly 14% of all AML cases in the population could be attributed to smoking. For certain AML subtypes, the contribution is even larger: smoking accounted for an estimated 34 to 42% of cases in some classifications. If you smoke, quitting is the single most impactful lifestyle change for reducing leukemia risk. If you don’t smoke, avoiding secondhand smoke also limits your benzene exposure.
Limit Benzene Exposure
Benzene is the chemical most clearly linked to leukemia, particularly AML. It’s found in gasoline, industrial solvents, some adhesives, paint strippers, and tobacco smoke. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration caps workplace exposure at 1 part per million averaged over an eight-hour shift, with a short-term ceiling of 5 ppm over any 15-minute period. Those limits exist specifically because of benzene’s cancer risk.
If you work in petroleum refining, chemical manufacturing, rubber production, or auto repair, make sure your employer provides adequate ventilation and protective equipment. Outside of work, you can reduce exposure by pumping gas carefully (avoid inhaling fumes), using water-based paints and adhesives when possible, and ensuring good ventilation when using solvents or cleaning products that contain benzene.
Be Cautious With Pesticides
Agricultural workers and people who regularly handle pesticides face higher rates of blood cancers. Organophosphate insecticides have been linked to significantly elevated risk: one pooled analysis found that farmers exposed to organophosphates had 80% higher odds of developing certain lymphomas compared to non-farmers. Organochlorine insecticides like DDT and lindane, along with carbamate insecticides like carbaryl, have also shown associations with blood cancers in large studies.
If you use pesticides at home or on a farm, wear gloves, long sleeves, and a mask. Follow label directions precisely and avoid applying them on windy days. Choose integrated pest management strategies that minimize chemical use when possible.
Manage Radiation Exposure
High-dose ionizing radiation is a well-established leukemia trigger. For most people, the relevant question is whether medical imaging poses a risk. Research involving over 250,000 children found that even low-dose radiation exposure (under 100 millisieverts, the range of repeated CT scans) is associated with a small but real increase in acute leukemia risk. The absolute risk is low: at a population level, thousands of additional CT scans would be expected to produce one new case of acute leukemia.
This doesn’t mean you should refuse necessary imaging. It does mean you should keep track of your scan history, ask your doctor whether a recommended CT scan is truly needed or whether an ultrasound or MRI could answer the same question, and avoid repeat scans that aren’t clinically justified. This is especially worth considering for children, who are more sensitive to radiation’s effects on developing cells.
Eat More Fruits, Vegetables, and Whole Foods
A diet rich in polyphenols, the protective compounds found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, olive oil, tea, and coffee, shows preventive effects against leukemia in both population studies and laboratory research. These compounds work by reducing harmful oxidative stress in cells and influencing the molecular pathways involved in cancer development.
No single food will prevent leukemia, but a consistently plant-heavy diet delivers a broad spectrum of these protective compounds. Berries, leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, nuts, and olive oil are particularly rich sources. Maintaining a healthy weight matters too, since obesity is classified as a suspected risk factor for leukemia.
Understand Treatment-Related Leukemia
If you’ve been treated for a previous cancer with chemotherapy or radiation therapy, you have a modestly elevated risk of developing what’s called treatment-related leukemia. Two categories of chemotherapy drugs carry the strongest associations: alkylating agents, which damage cancer cell DNA to stop replication, and topoisomerase II inhibitors, which work by breaking DNA strands in cancer cells. Both can occasionally cause the same kind of DNA damage in healthy blood-forming cells.
This doesn’t mean you should avoid chemotherapy if it’s recommended for an existing cancer. The benefit of treating the primary cancer almost always outweighs the small future leukemia risk. What it does mean is that if you’re a cancer survivor, staying current with follow-up bloodwork allows any secondary leukemia to be caught early, when treatment options are broadest.
Know Your Family History
Some people carry inherited genetic changes that raise their leukemia risk. The National Cancer Institute recommends that anyone diagnosed with a blood cancer have a thorough personal and family history taken. But even before any diagnosis, certain patterns in your family should prompt a conversation with your doctor: multiple relatives with blood cancers, cancers diagnosed at unusually young ages, or a family history of unexplained low blood counts or bone marrow problems.
Genetic counseling and, when appropriate, germline genetic testing can identify inherited syndromes that predispose to leukemia. Knowing your status doesn’t change your DNA, but it can guide more frequent monitoring so that any abnormalities are detected early. For families with known hereditary risk, this kind of surveillance is one of the most effective tools available.
Putting Risk in Perspective
The overall rate of new leukemia cases has been stable over the past decade, at about 14.7 per 100,000 people per year. Death rates, meanwhile, have been falling by an average of 1.8% annually, reflecting better treatments. Leukemia remains relatively uncommon compared to cancers of the breast, lung, or colon, and most people who take reasonable precautions with chemical exposures, don’t smoke, eat well, and maintain a healthy weight will never develop it. The steps above won’t guarantee prevention, but they reduce your exposure to the factors most consistently linked to the disease.