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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Researchers at Harvard have released new evidence linking long-term exposure to air pollution and the risk of cancer among older Americans. What's more, their findings suggest even relatively low pollution levels, considered 'safe' by U.S. standards, contribute to the risk of developing certain cancers, such as breast, prostate, colorectal and endometrial.
“Our findings uncover the biological plausibility of air pollution as a crucial risk factor in the development of specific cancers, bringing us one step closer to understanding the impact of air pollution on human health,” said Yaguang Wei, research fellow in the Department of Environmental Health. “To ensure equitable access to clean air for all populations, we must fully define the effects of air pollution and then work towards reducing it.”
Air pollution has long been a leading contributing factor to disease and illness on a global level. While it's been linked to lung cancer, research linking pollution and other cancers had, up until now, been left untouched, with very little published research.
Looking at the data from cancer-free Medicare patients between 2000 and 2016, researchers were able to divide subjects into different groups based on their specific cancer risks through out a ten year period. In a separate analysis, scientists looked at the cancer risk for subgroups, identifying age, sex, and average BMI, among others. All in all, between 2.2 million and 6.5 million individuals were analyzed.
“The key message here is that U.S. air pollution standards are inadequate in protecting public health,” said senior author Joel Schwartz, professor of environmental epidemiology. “The Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed stricter standards for PM2.5, but their proposal doesn’t go far enough in regulating this pollutant. Current NO2 standards are also woefully inadequate. Unless all of these standards become much, much stricter, air pollution will continue to result in thousands of unnecessary cases of multiple cancers each year.”
The study was published in the journal Environmental Epidemiology.
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