A long-term U.S. study suggests that women living in areas with higher air pollution, particularly places with heavy traffic emissions, face an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
The analysis, which included data from more than 400,000 participants and over 28,000 cases of breast cancer, provides one of the most comprehensive looks yet at how air quality may influence cancer risk.
Researchers combined findings from five large-scale breast cancer studies conducted over several decades, tracking women across different locations and for as long as ten years before diagnosis.
They paired this information with pollution readings from more than 2,600 air quality monitoring sites to identify possible connections between exposure levels and breast cancer incidence.
The data revealed that each 10-parts-per-billion rise in nitrogen dioxide was associated with a 3% increase in breast cancer cases. Based on current U.S. projections of about 316,950 new diagnoses this year, cutting that exposure could potentially prevent around 9,500 cases.
A separate finding showed that higher concentrations of PM2.5 were tied to more hormone receptor–negative breast cancers, an especially aggressive form that lacks estrogen and progesterone receptors and is more challenging to treat.
Of particular concern is that the average NO2 levels observed remained below U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. Breast cancer rates in the United States have been increasing for roughly four decades, even though national pollution levels are relatively low compared to many other industrialised countries.
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among American women, behind lung cancer. Approximately one in eight women in the U.S. will develop it during their lifetime, and more than four million survivors are currently living nationwide.
Veronica Irvin of the Oregon State University College of Health said: ‘It’s often not realistic for people to leave their homes and relocate in areas with better air quality in search of less health risk, so we need more effective clean air laws to help those who are most in need. We also need policies that help to reduce car traffic and promote alternative forms of transportation.’
In related news:
New studies link air pollution to both breast cancer and suicide – AirQualityNews
Leave a Reply