Among the top ten causes of death in Taiwan in 2017, cancer still ranks first. Among them, the mortality rate of lung cancer is the highest among all cancers in the past ten years , and the number of people is increasing year by year, and there is a trend of getting younger.
For a long time, society has generally believed that lung cancer is mainly related to smoking. However, data shows that more than half of lung cancer patients have no history of smoking, and 90% of female lung cancer patients have never smoked. This shows that the cause of lung cancer is not just smoking. Everyone is asking, is Taiwan's increasingly serious air pollution in recent years also one of the reasons?
For a long time, society has generally believed that lung cancer is mainly related to smoking. However, data shows that more than half of lung cancer patients have no history of smoking, and 90% of female lung cancer patients have never smoked. This shows that the cause of lung cancer is not just smoking. Everyone is asking, is Taiwan's increasingly serious air pollution in recent years also one of the reasons?
[World Health Organization: Air pollution causes 36% of lung cancer deaths]
Most current international studies show that air pollution does increase the risk of lung cancer.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published in 2013 that exposure to outdoor air pollution increases the risk of lung cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) also officially classified PM2.5 as a first-level carcinogen in the same year, and stated that approximately 3.7 million deaths worldwide every year can be attributed to outdoor air pollution . According to WHO data in 2016, air pollution caused 36% of lung cancer deaths.
Dr. Fu Bingui and Dr. Xu Zhengyuan of Taichung Rongzong Hospital shared the research published by Nawrot and other scholars in 2007 in the Taichung Medical Journal. They collected PM2.5 concentrations in 15 European countries to explore the relationship between PM2.5 and male lung cancer mortality. sex. The results found that in countries with higher PM2.5 concentrations, male lung cancer mortality rates are higher . According to the study, if the annual average concentration of PM2.5 in the country increases by 5 g/m3, the risk of lung cancer will increase by 17.7%. In addition, in 2011, American scholars also used ecological survey methods to explore the relationship between air pollution particles (PM) and the prevalence of lung cancer. They found that the higher the concentration of PM, the higher the probability of lung cancer (especially lung adenocarcinoma).
Dr. Ye Guangpeng, chairman of the Taiwan Healthy Air Action Alliance, held a press conference with other experts and scholars on World Lung Cancer Day in 2017 to declare the impact of air pollution on lung cancer. She cited data from Canada in 2016. A study of 89,234 women found that rising PM2.5 concentrations had an alarming impact on the increase in lung cancer and lung adenocarcinoma in women! For every 10 µg/m³ increase in PM2.5, lung cancer in women increases by 34%, and lung adenocarcinoma increases by 44%.
According to research from various countries, air pollution is indeed one of the causes of lung cancer, and its importance cannot be ignored.
[Lung adenocarcinoma is a type of lung cancer, and 80% of patients with lung adenocarcinoma have no history of smoking]
Lung cancer kills one person every 57 minutes on average in Taiwan. Among the top ten cancers, it has the highest medical expenses, the highest mortality rate, and the highest rate of late detection. It is called the king of cancers. In the past 30 years, the number of people suffering from lung cancer in Taiwan has increased 5.5 times, with 34 people diagnosed with lung cancer every day.
And what is the "lung adenocarcinoma" that everyone often hears about? In fact, lung adenocarcinoma is a type of lung cancer. Lung cancer can be roughly divided into two categories: "non-small cell lung cancer (about 90%)" and "small cell lung cancer (about 10%)". The former can be further subdivided into "lung adenocarcinoma", "squamous cell lung cancer", and "large cell lung cancer". Among them, lung adenocarcinoma accounts for about half of all lung cancer patients in Taiwan, and 80% of the patients have no history of smoking. It is a type of lung cancer that is less related to smoking . Eighty percent of female lung cancer patients suffer from lung adenocarcinoma, which has long been the number one cause of cancer death in women!
The early symptoms of lung adenocarcinoma are not obvious and the disease grows slowly, making it easy for people to ignore. People in the country should be more vigilant about it.
[The causes of lung cancer are complex and you should pay attention to all aspects of life]
Smoking is not the single factor that causes cancer, but in addition to air pollution, Yu Zhongren, vice president of National Taiwan University Hospital and chairman of the Taiwan Thoracic and Intensive Care Society, also analyzed that kitchen fumes, family history of lung cancer, and history of tuberculosis infection are all risk factors. In addition, studies in the United States have also shown that indoor radon pollution, second-hand smoke, workplaces with high levels of carcinogens, and genetic mutations are all factors that may lead to lung cancer.
Lung cancer has multiple causes and is chronic. Cases occurring now may be affected by risk factors 10 or 20 years ago. Analysis is relatively complex and takes time. At present, the National Health Administration has commissioned the Taiwan Lung Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health to conduct joint research to screen non-smokers, hoping to clarify whether it is affected by family genetics, oil smoke, lung disease, or air pollution.
Although the causes of lung cancer are not yet fully understood, research from various countries has at least confirmed that air pollution will increase the risk of cancer. We should pay attention to the issue and prevention of air pollution. But at the same time, we should also pay more attention to different factors, including quitting smoking, avoiding second-hand smoke, avoiding kitchen fumes, paying attention to the working environment, etc., in order to comprehensively reduce the incidence of lung cancer and live a healthy life.
Reference sources:
- Air pollution PM2.5 increases lung cancer risk
- Taiwan’s air is twice as bad as Canada’s and lung cancer death rate may be doubled
- Is it a murderer for non-smoking lung cancer patients to increase air pollution? Large-scale screening to find the cause
- Besides cigarettes and air pollution, what other factors cause us to get lung cancer?
- More than half of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking and pollution
- Lung cancer can be divided into four categories, with different degrees of evil