Cancer is the most common cause of death especially the lung cancer in most of the developed countries. Lung cancer has been frequently recognized as the malignancy that is caused by environment and the cigarette smoking. I have described the cigarette smoking risk factor that causing the lung cancer in Cytogenetics and Cancer Research blog these last few days. Therefore, I wish to write about another common risk factor which is environmental exposure so that we can take more appropriate prevention step of getting lung cancer.
Exposure to environmental carcinogens has been cited as the secondary risk factor of lung cancer independent of smoking. The exposure includes both outdoor and indoor air pollutants with contaminants of soil and drinking water. According to cancer research, the exposure of the carcinogens can occur because of both residential and occupational setting. There are many carcinogens exposing in our environment that will cause lung cancer. I just choose some major factors to be further reviewed.
Gas Radon Contributes to Lung Cancer
One of the carcinogens is gas radon. Gas radon and its radioactive progeny are the sources of exposure to inhaled radioactive substances. People who work at tin mines might be greatly exposed to radon. If the homes built on radon-containing soil, the residents might be exposed to the naturally occurring radioactive gas radon too. According to cancer research, residential radon is the primary cause of non-smoking related lung cancer.
Indoor Air Pollution Contributes to Lung Cancer
Sometimes, the indoor pollution which is caused by the cooking and heating will contribute to the developing of lung cancer too. For instance, during the time we are cooking the meat at high temperature, the potentially mutagenic cooking oil fumes and the carcinogenic metabolic products of heterocyclic amines will be released. Tai-an Chiang et al. showed that the fumes were not, or weakly mutagenic in the Salmonella assay when the distance between fume extractor and oil surface was 60 cm or less.
Outdoor Air Pollution Contributes to Lung Cancer
Outdoor air pollution is a contributor to the risk of lung cancer too. The fossil fuel combustion products are known carcinogens that will increase the risk of getting lung cancer. People who live in rural area have less lung cancer cases than the urban area residents regarding to the lower level of air pollution. Outdoor air pollution is composed of complex mixtures including the radionuclides, gas and particulate combustion products and fibers. Exposure to others respiratory carcinogens such as asbestos is related to the increased risk of lung cancer. How can we deal with the air pollution? Migrating to the rural area? The best way is to make our environment free of pollutant. We need to work together to help in increasing people’s awareness. Otherwise, we might pollute our rural area too at the end of the day.
In conclusion, by understanding the multiple components contributing to lung cancer which include the cigarette smoking and environmental exposure, we can identify the high-risk subgroups so that they can benefit from a proper screening or relevant interventions.
(Reference: David S. Albert, Lisa M. Hess. Fundamental of Cancer Prevention, Second edition)
I think you have missed out on cancer caused by smoking………..Lot of people die each year due to cancer cause by smoking………….
I do agree with you Gas Radon, indoor and outdoor air pollution
but I think the main contributor for lung cancer is smoking……..
Hi Sandesh! Yes! You are right! The main contributor for lung cancer is smoking. As i mentioned in this post, i have written about the cigarette smoking as the primary risk factor of lung cancer before this. You may take a look of it. Thanks!
it’s a really good blogpost, esp relevant to me becasue ive seen many deaths due to cancer in my family. environment does play a big role in such diseases, i live in the 7th largest city of the world which is one of the most polluted too.
Outdoor pollution is a collection of many different gases and chemicals. The ones that have the strongest impact on cancer risk are nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. We may not be used to thinking about second-hand smoke as air pollution. But in terms of cancer, it has a larger impact than traffic fumes or industrial emissions.