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A Russian rocket site in Kazakhstan is being blamed for higher children sickness rates in the surrounding residential areas. The culprit is thought to be unburned fuel being sprayed out when the rockets launch.

Findings from a study of health records of sick children were published by Nature, a peer-review journal. According to Reuters:

Researchers from Vector, the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk, showed in an unpublished study that children in areas of Siberia where the fuel is sprayed during take-off suffer serious health problems.

"The level of some diseases such as endocrine and blood disorders in polluted areas is more than twice the regional average, they say," according to the journal Nature.

Baikonur, which is used by the Russian space agency, Rosaviakosmos, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, is the launch pad for many missions to the International Space Station and a source of income for the Russian government.

An unnamed expert on the country's space industry told the journal that profit from an individual commercial launch could be as much as $25 million.

Other launch sites used by NASA and the ESA launch rockets out over an ocean, avoiding the potentially harmful fuel spray.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.