People who have never smoked, but who live in areas with higher air pollution levels, are roughly 20 percent more likely to die from lung cancer than people who live with cleaner air, researchers conclude in a new study.
"It's another argument for why the regulatory levels (for air pollutants) be as low as possible," said Francine Laden, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the research.
Though smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer, about one in 10 people who develop lung cancer have never smoked.
"Lung cancer in 'never smokers' is an important cancer. It's the sixth leading cause of cancer in U.S....After the team took into account other cancer risk factors, such as second-hand smoke and radon exposure, they found that for every 10 extra units of air pollution exposure, a person's risk of lung cancer rose by 15 to 27 percent.
The increased risk for lung cancer associated with pollution is small in comparison to the 20-fold increased risk from smoking.
And the study team didn't prove that the pollution caused the cancer cases, but "there's lots of evidence that exposure to fine particles increases cardiopulmonary mortality," Turner told Reuters Health.
...Laden noted that the pollution levels associated with the increased risk of cancer in the current study are not uncommon in the U.S.
"These levels are within the (regulatory) standards," Laden told Reuters Health. "We're not talking about people who live in a really polluted place with no pollution control."
SOURCE: bit.ly/rMyNsA American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, online