'Hidden Killer': Experts Urge Action After Study Shows How Air Pollution Causes Lung Cancer
"If you want to address human health, you have to address climate health first," said Charles Swanton, who led the research team.
Experts emphasized the importance of more ambitiously addressing air pollution from fossil fuels after the presentation of a new breakthrough on lung cancer in Paris on Saturday.
"The same particles in the air that derive from the combustion of fossil fuels, exacerbating climate change, are directly impacting human health."
Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London (UCL) shared their findings—part of the TRACERx lung study funded by Cancer Research U.K.—at the annual conference of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).
"Our study has fundamentally changed how we view lung cancer in people who have never smoked," said Cancer Research U.K. chief clinician Charles Swanton, who led and presented the research.
The way air pollution causes cancer differs from cigarettes and sunlight. Tobacco smoke and ultraviolet light damage the structure of DNA, creating mutations that cause cancer. Air pollution causes inflammation in the lungs, affecting cells that carry mutations.
"Cells with cancer-causing mutations accumulate naturally as we age, but they are normally inactive," Swanton explained. "We've demonstrated that air pollution wakes these cells up in the lungs, encouraging them to grow and potentially form tumors."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/11/hidden-killer-experts-urge-action-after-study-shows-how-air-pollution-causes-lung
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