New numbers on lung cancer have revealed that the air is peppered with substances that cause cancer, and they have been officially named carcinogenic to humans.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer announced on Thursday that information from 2010 shows 223,000 people died from lung cancer that was directly related to air pollution around the world. The World Health Organization's cancer sector also told Reuters that dirty air can potentially increase risks of bladder cancer.
Pollution is brought on by transportation emissions, industrial or agricultural runoff, power generators and residential heating and cooking, Reuters reported. Cancer risks vary depending upon pollution levels in each country, head of the carcinogen-ranking side of the agency Kurt Straif reported. Countries undergoing quick-moving industrialization like China are most susceptible to cancer-causing carcinogens. The risk, he said, was akin to constantly taking in second-hand tobacco smoke.
"Our task was to evaluate the air everyone breathes rather than focus on specific air pollutants," deputy head Dana Loomis said in a statement. "The results from the reviewed studies point in the same direction: the risk of developing lung cancer is significantly increased in people exposed to air pollution."
The agency reported that air pollution and its major component "particulate matter" would become the main classification in its Group 1 human carcinogens, after thousands of studies were reviewed that kept tabs on countries over a number of years.
Loomis told Reuters that the highest levels of exposure to air pollution were found in Asia, South Asia, eastern North America, a few places in Central America and Mexico, and North Africa.
Despite the slight disparities found between countries, the IARC maintained that air pollution had been proved to be directly linked to cancer.
"Our conclusion is that this is a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths," director of IARC Dr. Christopher Wild announced in Geneva.
Wild said that he hoped the results would help the World Health Organization adjust its 2005 policies on air quality standards.
