Air Pollution Linked to Multiple Cancers: Policy Implications

The carcinogenicity of air pollution and its impact on lung cancer risk are well known; however, knowledge gaps and mixed results remain for bladder, breast, and prostate cancers.

Inass Kayyal-Tarabeia and the team aimed to evaluate the associations between ambient air pollution (PM2.5 and NOx) and cancer incidence.

Researchers assessed exposure using historical addresses of over 900,000 participants. Cancer incidence included primary cancer cases diagnosed from 2007 to 2015 (n = 30,979). Cox regression was used to evaluate the associations between ambient air pollution and cancer incidence (HR, 95% CI).

The results showed that in single-pollutant models, a one interquartile range (IQR) increase of PM2.5 (2.11 µg/m³) was linked to a higher risk of all cancer sites (HR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.47-1.54), lung cancer (HR = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.60-1.87), bladder cancer (HR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.37-1.65), breast cancer (HR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.42-1.58), and prostate cancer (HR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.31-1.52). The estimates for PM2.5 were stronger compared with NOx in both single-pollutant and co-pollutant models for all cancer sites.

The study showed that ambient air pollution is carcinogenic for lung cancer and also provides additional evidence for bladder, breast, and prostate cancers.

Further research is needed to confirm the findings related to prostate cancer. However, this need for additional studies should not delay the implementation of policies to reduce public exposure to air pollution.

Funding was provided by Israel Cancer Association and Israel Jacob and Lila Alther Foundation.

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39018665/

Kayyal-Tarabeia I, Zick A, Kloog I, et al. (2024). “Beyond lung cancer: air pollution and bladder, breast and prostate cancer incidence.” Int J Epidemiol. 2024;53(4):dyae093. doi:10.1093/ije/dyae093