This Friday August 1ᵉʳ marks the World Day for the Fight for Lung Cancer. The latter, the most frequent on a planet’s scale, is caused first by smoking. But according to an American study, air pollution could replace exposure to asbestos as the second risk factor.
The day against lung cancer is held this Friday. An important date, given that this cancer is the 3rd more frequent and represents the 1st cause of cancer death in France among men, according to the National Cancer Institute.
If deaths due to lung cancer still decreased by 8% worldwide between 1990 and 2019, a study by researchers from the Center Sylvester understanding Cancer in Miami, Florida, in the United States, has updated the classification of the main risk factors.
Tobacco remains the main cause of deaths linked to lung cancer, with 66% tobacco -related mortality in 2019 (compared to 72% in 1990). The study notes, however, that the mortality rate of women in tobacco lung cancer increases with an increase of 2% over the same period.
The most striking information in the study is the fact that air pollution has just supplanted exposure to asbestos in second place in risk factors. “Air pollution has now become the second most common risk factor, representing almost 20 % of the mortality rate of lung cancer, trachea and bronchi worldwide and more than 25 % in China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria,” said the report.
“The association between mortality by lung cancer and air pollution is still controversial, but more and more evidence shows that there is a link to which must be paid. This document provides additional proof that this is not a problem limited to a country; It is a global phenomenon, ”adds Estelamari Rodriguez, research co-author. It should be noted that, if the ban on asbestos is progressing around the world, “deaths by cancer of the pulmonary lung linked to asbestos in the United States remain almost double the world average,” they note.
