Air pollution can cause lung cancer in non-smokers, according to a recent Henry Ford Health study that examined years of data from Wayne county. Researchers found that non-smokers who lived near textile and industrial plants were more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers who didn’t live near textile and industrial plants.
“We didn’t find an exact distance as a cut off, but we did find that the closer you lived to a plant, the more likely you were to get lung cancer,” says Ikenna Okereke, M.D., a thoracic surgeon at Henry Ford Health who worked on the study. “We also looked into the amount of exposure required to develop lung cancer. In other words: If I walk by a textile plant today and develop cancer tomorrow, it probably wasn’t due to exposure from the day before. So how many years of exposure does it take to develop lung cancer? We’re doing more studies on that, but it might not be as long as you think. In some cases, it may only take years of exposure – not decades.”
Air Pollutants Most Closely Linked With Lung Cancer
Dr. Okereke and his team also identified the pollutants that were closely associated with lung cancer – all of which come from burning fossil fuels (i.e. coal, oil, gas). They include:
- Sulfur dioxide. “When I was growing up in Detroit in the 1980s, sulfur dioxide created what we called acid rain,” says Dr. Okereke. “You could literally taste the rain and you could smell it. It had a foul odor. And then it went away, thanks to the Clean Air Act Amendments in 1990, which led to a 50% reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions by the year 2000. Although levels of sulfur dioxide aren’t as bad as they were back then, our study found there are still short- and long-term effects to sulfur dioxide – meaning it doesn’t take as much exposure to sulfur dioxide as you might think to develop lung cancer.”
- Particulate matter. Particulate matter (PM) is polluted matter that’s less than 2.5 microns – a size so small that it can cause inflammation and damage when you inhale it. Along with burning fossil fuels, it also comes from wildfire smoke. “We’re also looking into ultrafine matter, which is particulate matter that’s less than 1 micron,” says Dr. Okereke. “But PM 2.5 has been the most studied. Most air quality sensors (even the lesser expensive ones) can measure PM 2.5, whereas some of the other pollutants cost more to measure.”
- Nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen dioxide, which plays a role in the formation of acid rain, is unfortunately one of the pollutants that costs more to measure on an air quality sensor, says Dr. Okereke.
- Carbon monoxide. You should have a carbon monoxide detector in your home because it is especially dangerous when found indoors: in fireplaces, tobacco smoke and gas stoves.
- Volatile organic compounds. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can also be found in pesticides, paint, cleaning supplies and personal care products. “More and more, we’re seeing clinical associations between VOCs and lung cancer,” says Dr. Okereke. “In fact, studies have shown dogs can sniff cancer. What they’re probably sniffing are VOCs, which we emit through our breath. If people with cancer have higher concentrations of VOCs, you could make the hypothesis that VOCs cause lung cancer.”
Increasing The Awareness Of Air Quality
Lung Cancer Care At Henry Ford
Right now, if you look at the weather app on your phone, you can see what the air quality is in your area. But Dr. Okereke says this isn’t always the most accurate information.
“The air quality might appear to be the same in Grosse Pointe as it is downtown next to Little Caesers Arena, but that’s not true,” says Dr. Okereke. “The problem is the number of air quality sensors (which are sourced from the Environmental Protection Agency) are relatively sparce.”
This is where Dr. Okereke’s team comes in: they are building a network – neighborhood by neighborhood – of air quality sensors in Detroit so you can tell exactly what your air quality is at any given moment.
“We also want to develop an app or website where you can type in your address and see the air quality before you go outside, especially for some of the underrepresented or underserved areas,” says Dr. Okereke. “And we want to create an awareness campaign, so people know to check the air quality. And then if the air is bad, they’ll know to stay inside, limit their time outdoors and wear a mask when they go out.”
Reviewed by Ikenna Okereke, M.D., system director of thoracic surgery at Henry Ford Health.
