LUNG CANCER A-Z

  EXHAUSTS FROM PETROL AND DIESEL CARS ARE A CAUSE OF CANCER DEATHS LIKE SMOKING

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EXHAUST PIPES - The fumes from car exhausts kills us slowly when we burn it and release the carcinogens into the atmosphere to create smogs. We might as well be smoking. Before Zyklon B, the Germans gassed the inmates of concentration camps using the exhaust fumes from trucks. It is estimated that around 8 million people died in 2018 of cancer caused by vehicle pollution. That is three times the mortality rate of Covid 19.

USA

Lung cancer is the #1 cancer killer of both men and women in the U.S.

When you think of risk factors for lung cancer, what comes to mind?

Most of us think about the risk associated with smoking cigarettes, but did you know that air pollution can also cause lung cancer?

Overwhelming evidence shows that particle pollution in the outdoor air we breathe - like that coming from vehicle exhausts, coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources - can cause lung cancer.

LUNG CANCER VICTIM 2021 - On 8 October it was announced that Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP had sadly passed away following a long illness. As a mark of respect, the New Palace Yard flags were lowered to half-mast in tribute.

On 11 January 2021, he announced that he would be taking a leave of absence to prepare for a cancer operation involving the removal of his right lung. He was a non-smoker, but frequented the City of London weekly, as part of his cabinet duties. London is a highly polluted city.

On 7 July 2021, Brokenshire tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, stating his recovery from lung cancer was "taking longer than expected".

The House of Commons paid tribute to Brokenshire on 20 October; his funeral took place on 21 October at St John the Evangelist Church in Bexley. Robert Buckland, Cressida Dick, Bob Neill, Priti Patel and Rishi Sunak were named as some of those in attendance. Former prime minister Theresa May gave a Bible reading. His widow said she is immensely proud of the impact he continues to have as donations for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation (RCLCF), one of his favoured charities, have topped £45,000.

LONDON AIR POLLUTION STUDY - 25 JANUARY 2021 - City Hall commissioned Imperial College London to assess the impact on health of the mayoral air quality policies, and air pollution in London, based on 2019 and future levels of air pollution up to 2050. Key findings include:

The Mayor’s air quality policies and wider improvements in air pollution will increase the average life expectancy of a child born in London in 2013 by six months.

In 2019, in Greater London, the equivalent of between 3,600 to 4,100 deaths were estimated to be attributable to air pollution, considering that health effects exist even at very low levels. This calculation is for deaths from all causes including respiratory, lung cancer and cardiovascular deaths.

The highest number of deaths was in outer London boroughs, mainly due to the higher proportion of elderly people in these areas, who are more vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution. The boroughs with the highest number of air pollution related deaths in 2019 were Bromley, Barnet, Croydon and Havering. This underlines that pollution is not just a central London problem.

100% of Londoners live in an area where pollution exceeds guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization.

Road vehicles are the single biggest cause of London's air pollution. They produce around half of all nitrogen oxides and emit tiny particles of rubber and metal - too small to see with the naked eye - into the air we breathe.

Despite recent improvements in air quality, toxic air pollution in the Capital is still the biggest environmental risk to the health of all Londoners, harming their lungs, worsening chronic illnesses such as asthma, lung and heart disease and putting the health of children at risk. The Imperial College London Study says that in 2019 over 4,000 Londoners died because of the impact of toxic air. Former Mayor, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is pushing for 100% renewable energy by 2050. Now all he needs is the infrastructure to use that energy efficiently for transport, homes and industry.

PREVENTION

Cancer prevention is action taken to lower the chance of getting cancer. By preventing cancer, the number of new cases of cancer in a group or population is lowered. Hopefully, this will lower the number of deaths caused by cancer. Unfortunately, the undertaker policies of most G20 nations, is sending millions of people to early graves. National health services cannot cope, as governments well know, but they are doing little about it, rather condoning long waiting list to kill off the victims of their negligent administrations.

To prevent new cancers from starting, scientists look at risk factors and protective factors. Anything that increases your chance of developing cancer is called a cancer risk factor; anything that decreases your chance of developing cancer is called a cancer protective factor.

Some risk factors for cancer can be avoided, but many cannot. For example, both smoking and inheriting certain genes are risk factors for some types of cancer, but smoking can be avoided as  can driving petrol and diesel cars.

Where prevention is better than cure, clean energy infrastructure is necessary, to tackle the disease at the root cause.

Regular exercise and a healthy diet may be protective factors for some types of cancer. Avoiding risk factors and increasing protective factors may lower your risk but it does not mean that you will not get cancer.

Different ways to prevent cancer are being studied, including:

- Drive an electric car and tell others about exhaust fumes

- Lobby your MP for cleaner transport
- Avoiding things known to cause cancer, like toxic ocean plastics
- Taking medicines to treat a pre-cancerous condition or to keep cancer from starting

- Eat plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and foods with B vitamins

- Take exercise and avoid overly rich carcinogenic foods, like plastic toxified fish

- Move out of the city

Lung cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the lung. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women.

Remember Hinkley, California and PG&E, put yourself at risk as to any carcinogen and the chances are that your will get sick. Equally, those responsible for making you ill, will do all they can to deny it.

Air pollution levels tend to be higher in UK towns and cities. So why would anyone live there? The answer to that is they need the work and the money - so are prepared to accept the risk of a shorter life and painful death. And of course it costs more to live in the country, where there are no affordable houses. Councils like Wealden make sure of that.

In 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) confirmed that outdoor air pollution is a cause of cancer. Tiny dust-like particles just millionths of a metre wide, called ‘particulate matter’, make up a part of outdoor air pollution. The smallest particles known as PM10 and PM2.5 are linked to lung cancers caused by pollution. It is not fully understood how these particles can damage DNA in cells and cause cancer.

Air pollution is a killer and the level of toxins can lead to several health conditions. Apart from severe respiratory conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular problems and hypertension, stroke, impaired mental health, anxiety, low birth weight babies, pre-term delivery and depression, air pollution can also be linked to cancer.

Pollutants in the air are absorbed into the circulatory system and pumped all around the body. They can also get deposited on soil, water, and other natural sources, increasing human exposure. In a recent meta-analysis, it was found that exposure to the main air pollutants is associated with increased mortality from all cancers1. For instance, radon, which is a radioactive gas, that can accumulate indoors is one of the leading risk factors for lung cancer.

Economies based on carcinogenic fossil fuels contravene the laws of natural justice, where those who knowingly kill their brothers and sisters in the name of profit, are guilty of murder. It is Cain slaying Able, where the instruments of death are greenhouse gases and particulates. Vote for rulers who have a conscience, not a fat wallet. The two seldom go hand in hand.

How Much Does it Raise Risk? 

The role that air pollution plays in lung cancer risk varies with several factors. Overall, Global Burden of Disease Project data estimated that in 2010, air pollution resulted in 3.2 million deaths globally, 223,000 of which were due to lung cancer.

Urban vs. Rural 

Studies of geographical differences in the risk of lung cancer reveal that lung cancer is more common in urban areas and less common in rural areas, and this is to be expected.

Defining Air Pollution 

It's clear that air pollution is an important risk factor for lung cancer, but what exactly is it in air pollution that causes the damage that can lead to cancer?

Ozone

Particle pollution: It's thought that particle pollution is most important as far as being a risk factor for lung cancer. Air born particles can be comprised of both chemical and biological matter and include both solid and liquid particles.

Sources

Sources of the compounds found in air pollution include vehicle exhaust, coal burning for heat or cooking, forest fires, diesel exhaust, power plants, wood stoves, and emissions from industrial and agricultural sources. Components can include both inorganic (metals) and organic chemicals, soil, and dust.

Particle Size and Risk 

The size of particles in air pollution is very important in their role in cancer. It is the small particles (those less than 2.5 microns in diameter and less) that are of most concern. These particles cannot be seen by the human eye.

Larger particles are usually trapped in the mouth or nasal passages, or by cilia (the tiny hair like structures) in the larger airways. From there, they can be removed by coughing.

Knowing Your Risk 

The first step in reducing risk is to understand if you are at risk. Fortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency offers a tool called AirNow. With this tool, you learn about the air quality in your area based on your zip code.

Guidelines put for by the World Health Organization define the following as the upper limits of exposure based on particle size:

PM2.5 : 10 μg/m3 annual mean 25 μg/m3 24-hour mean

PM10 : 20 μg/m3 annual mean 50 μg/m3 24-hour mean

The formation of smog is hazardous to your health especially if you live in a big sunny city.

The Formation of Smog

Photochemical smog (or just smog for short) is a term used to describe air pollution that is a result of the interaction of sunlight with certain chemicals in the atmosphere. One of the primary components of photochemical smog is ozone. While ozone in the stratosphere protects earth from harmful UV radiation, ozone on the ground is hazardous to human health. Ground-level ozone is formed when vehicle emissions containing nitrogen oxides (primarily from vehicle exhaust) and volatile organic compounds (from paints, solvents, and fuel evaporation) interact in the presence of sunlight. Therefore, some of the sunniest cities are also some of the most polluted.

Smog and Your Health 

According to the American Lung Association, your lungs and heart can be permanently affected by air pollution and smog. While the young and the elderly are particularly susceptible to the effects of pollution, anyone with both short and long-term exposure can suffer ill health effects. Problems include shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, bronchitis, pneumonia, inflammation of pulmonary tissues, heart attacks, lung cancer, increased asthma-related symptoms, fatigue, heart palpitations, and even premature aging of the lungs and death.

Finding the link

Although a clear connection is yet to be established between air pollution and cancer, there are two possible mechanisms for how exposure can lead to it. On one hand, the oxidative stress caused by pollutants can cause DNA damage. These reactive oxygen species such as sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide are generated in response to the particulate matter in air. Undue oxidative stress has further been linked to cell proliferation, genetic instability, and mutations.

The second mechanism could possibly involve inflammation. In a study, it was found that in-haled gaseous and particulate pollutants trigger an increase in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the body. This increases the risk of gastric cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Thus, inflammation can result in mortality due to cancer over time in exposed individuals.

A SLOW DEATH - If Australia had invested in electric vehicle infrastructure, thousands of human lives could have been saved - according to a report by the Australian Conservation Foundation. To know about a potential cure, and to do nothing to implement it, is a violation of the State's duty of care to their population.

Where everyone has the right to life, and to expect a long and healthy life, this dereliction of duty constitutes a serious human rights violation, multiplied by 5,000 every year in Australia, with Scott Morrison at the helm, and some 8 million deaths globally in 2018. It is worse than Covid19 at 5,078,234 so far in two years. Hence, petrol and diesel fumes are far more dangerous - but the problem is not receiving the attention it deserves.

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/air-quality

https://www.cancer.gov/types

https://cancerstatisticscenter.cancer.org/#!/state/California

https://www.lung.org/about-us/blog/2016/06/lung-cancer-and-pollution.html

https://doctor.ndtv.com/cancer/world-cancer-day-can-air-pollution-be-linked-to-cancer-our-expert-tells-2171604

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-smog-3444125

https://www.verywellhealth.com/air-pollution-and-lung-cancer-2249413

https://airnow.gov/

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/air-pollution-radon-gas-and-cancer/how-can-air-pollution-cause-cancer

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