Bani Adam
Senator (1k+ posts)
Air pollution causes cancer, WHO concludes
Air pollution has been listed as a leading cause of lung cancer by a World Health Organisation team tasked with identifying environmental carcinogens.
Nick Collins, Science Correspondent 8:21PM BST 17 Oct 2013
Fresh air polluted by exhaust fumes and industrial emissions causes lung cancer, a team of World Health Organisation experts has officially declared.
Outdoor air pollution was officially classified as carcinogenic to humans by the cancer arm of the WHO after a review of the latest scientific evidence from around the world.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) also highlighted an apparent link between air pollution and an increased risk of bladder cancer, although the findings were less conclusive.
Levels of pollution vary widely between urban and rural areas, but the working group said their findings applied to all regions of the world, and sent a strong signal to governments to tackle the problem immediately.
Dr Kurt Straif, head of the IARC Monographs Section which identifies environmental causes of cancer, said: The air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances.
We now know that outdoor air pollution is not only a major risk to health in general, but also a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths.
The latest available data suggest that in 2010, air pollution was responsible for the deaths of 223,000 lung cancer patients around the world.
Scientists from the IARC studied more than 1,000 academic papers on polluted air and, separately, small particles found in polluted air.
They found that the risk of developing lung cancer rises in tandem with increasing levels of either, concluding for the first time that outdoor air pollution is a cause of cancer.
Prof David Phillips of Kings College London, a member of the working group, said there was no particular threshold at which pollution becomes dangerous. The higher the pollution, the greater the cancer risk, he explained. It does not suddenly kick in at a particular level.
The programme had previously classed a variety of individual chemicals and mixtures found in polluted air as carcinogens, such as diesel engine exhaust, solvents, metals, and dusts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10386771/Air-pollution-causes-cancer-WHO-concludes.html
Air pollution has been listed as a leading cause of lung cancer by a World Health Organisation team tasked with identifying environmental carcinogens.
Nick Collins, Science Correspondent 8:21PM BST 17 Oct 2013
Fresh air polluted by exhaust fumes and industrial emissions causes lung cancer, a team of World Health Organisation experts has officially declared.
Outdoor air pollution was officially classified as carcinogenic to humans by the cancer arm of the WHO after a review of the latest scientific evidence from around the world.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) also highlighted an apparent link between air pollution and an increased risk of bladder cancer, although the findings were less conclusive.
Levels of pollution vary widely between urban and rural areas, but the working group said their findings applied to all regions of the world, and sent a strong signal to governments to tackle the problem immediately.
Dr Kurt Straif, head of the IARC Monographs Section which identifies environmental causes of cancer, said: The air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances.
We now know that outdoor air pollution is not only a major risk to health in general, but also a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths.
The latest available data suggest that in 2010, air pollution was responsible for the deaths of 223,000 lung cancer patients around the world.
Scientists from the IARC studied more than 1,000 academic papers on polluted air and, separately, small particles found in polluted air.
They found that the risk of developing lung cancer rises in tandem with increasing levels of either, concluding for the first time that outdoor air pollution is a cause of cancer.
Prof David Phillips of Kings College London, a member of the working group, said there was no particular threshold at which pollution becomes dangerous. The higher the pollution, the greater the cancer risk, he explained. It does not suddenly kick in at a particular level.
The programme had previously classed a variety of individual chemicals and mixtures found in polluted air as carcinogens, such as diesel engine exhaust, solvents, metals, and dusts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10386771/Air-pollution-causes-cancer-WHO-concludes.html
