Air pollution may be linked to heightened mouth cancer risk: High levels of fine particulate matter and to lesser extent, ozone, may be key

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

High levels of air pollutants, especially fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and to a lesser extent, ozone, may be linked to a heightened risk of developing mouth cancer, suggests the first study of its kind, published online in the Journal of Investigative Medicine.

The number of new cases, and deaths from, mouth cancer is increasing in many parts of the world. Known risk factors include smoking, drinking, human papilloma virus, and in parts of South East Asia, the chewing of betel quid (‘paan’), a mix of ingredients wrapped in betel leaf.

Exposure to heavy metals and emissions from petrochemical plants are also thought to be implicated in the development of the disease, while air pollution, especially PM2.5, is known to be harmful to respiratory and cardiovascular health.

To find out if air pollutants might have a role in the development of mouth cancer, the researchers mined national cancer, health, insurance, and air quality databases.

They drew on average levels of air pollutants (sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and varying sizes of fine particulate matter), measured in 2009 at 66 air quality monitoring stations across Taiwan.

In 2012-13, they checked the health records of 482,659 men aged 40 and older who had attended preventive health services, and had provided information on smoking/betel quid chewing.

Diagnoses of mouth cancer were then linked to local area readings for air pollutants taken in 2009.

In 2012-13, 1617 cases of mouth cancer were diagnosed among the men. Unsurprisingly, smoking and frequent betel quid chewing were significantly associated with heightened risk of a diagnosis.

But so too were high levels of PM2.5. After taking account of potentially influential factors, increasing levels of PM2.5 were associated with an increasing risk of mouth cancer.

When compared with levels below 26.74 ug/m3, those above 40.37 ug/ m3 were associated with a 43 per cent heightened risk of a mouth cancer diagnosis.

A significant association was also observed for ozone levels below 28.69-30.97 parts per billion.

This is an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause. And there are certain caveats to consider, say the researchers. These include the lack of data on how much PM2.5 enters the mouth, or on long term exposure to this pollutant.

Nor is it clear how air pollutants might contribute to mouth cancer, they acknowledge, and further research would be needed to delve further into this.

But some of the components of PM2.5 include heavy metals, as well as compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons-known cancer causing agents-they say.

And the smaller diameter, but larger surface area, of PM2.5 means that it can be relatively easily absorbed while at the same time potentially wreaking greater havoc on the body, they suggest.

“This study, with a large sample size, is the first to associate oral cancer with PM2.5…These findings add to the growing evidence on the adverse effects of PM2.5 on human health,” they conclude.

via Air pollution may be linked to heightened mouth cancer risk: High levels of fine particulate matter and to lesser extent, ozone, may be key — ScienceDaily

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High levels of air pollution linked to mouth cancer cases

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

High levels of air pollutants may be linked to a heightened risk of developing mouth cancer, suggests the first study of its kind.

The number of new cases, and deaths from mouth cancer is increasing in many parts of the world. Known risk factors include smoking, drinking, and the human papilloma virus (HPV).

But to find out if air pollutants might have a role in the development of mouth cancer, researchers mined national cancer, health, insurance, and air quality databases. They drew on average levels of air pollutants (sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and varying sizes of fine particulate matter), at 66 Taiwan monitoring stations.

The observational study, published online in the ‘Journal of Investigative Medicine’, found a potential link with high levels of pollution.

via High levels of air pollution linked to mouth cancer cases – Independent.ie

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Contaminated cities: New figures deal fresh blow to Spain’s fight against air pollution

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

2017 data released by the government show slight spike in nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter

Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition on Thursday released air quality data for 2017 that show a slight spike in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM10), two of the most hazardous air pollutants for human health.

The ministry notes that this minor increase could be due to meteorological fluctuations, not necessarily to a rise in industrial or automobile emissions.

But the report also underscores that Spain is failing to make progress in the fight against pollution, a fact that has already drawn a warning from the European Union. In January, the European Commission demanded to see Spain’s plans to revert the situation, and said that nine member states could face legal action over their failure to properly tackle air pollution.

Shortly after coming to power in early June, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez informed Brussels about his plans to change the country’s policy on renewable energy and climate change. Several sources within the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the European Union confirmed that Spanish authorities have been in touch with the European Council, which sets the EU’s policy agenda, to discuss Spain’s new approach to environmental issues.

In Spain, the biggest problems are in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona, where traffic causes high NO2 levels. The newest figures show seven urban agglomerations where NO2 is above the annual threshold, up from six in 2016. These include the Barcelona metropolitan area, Madrid, the Corredor del Henares industrial and residential axis, the southern Madrid area, the Bajo Nervión in the Basque Country, and the city of Granada and its outlying area in Andalusia.

As for particulate matter, the number of affected areas has gone from three to five: the Granada metropolitan area, Málaga on the Costa del Sol, Villanueva del Arzobispo in Jaén province, Plana de Vic in Barcelona, and Avilés in Asturias.

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is also on the rise, the data shows. “Levels are high in suburban and rural areas,” says the report.

via Contaminated cities: New figures deal fresh blow to Spain’s fight against air pollution | In English | EL PAÍS

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Brussels imposes €350 fine on dirtiest diesels

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Drivers of the most polluting diesel vehicles can now be fined in Brussels after a grace period expired on Sunday (30 September), just as air pollution in the Belgian capital looks ready to heavily influence local elections.

Anyone driving diesel Euro 0 and Euro 1 cars, vans, buses and minibuses in the Brussels Region can now be hit with a €350 fine, thanks to legislation that fully comes into force on 1 September.

Legislation on the EU capital’s low-emission zone (LEZ) actually became law at the very beginning of the year but a nine-month-long transition period was granted, so that motorists could adapt in time.

But now there are no excuses and offenders can be fined every time they are caught in the LEZ in an illegal vehicle. The local government has, however, decided to grant a new grace period of three months after every infraction.

A statement on a dedicated website for the new scheme explained that it will “allow people to make arrangements to change their vehicle or change their driving habits”. A maximum of four fines can be levied within one year though.

Motorists will be monitored by a network of over 180 licence-plate-scanning cameras that are being set up in the region. Ninety are already operational and the government expects the system to be fully set up by the end of the year.

Rules for petrol cars are expected to come into force at the beginning of next year.

via Brussels imposes €350 fine on dirtiest diesels – EURACTIV.com

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Pollutionwatch: wood and peat burning brings return of air pollution to Dublin

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

A rise in the number of homes burning ‘green’ fuel in Dublin has had a big effect on air pollution

London’s air pollution history – the Victorian pea-souper fogs, the deaths of 12,000 people in the 1952 smog and the Clean Air Acts that followed – are well known. Dublin, just 285 miles (460km) away, has a different history. Here it was smog in the 1980s that prompted a ban on the sale of bituminous, or “smoky” coal in 1990. Smoke pollution dropped by 70% and there were 17% fewer deaths from breathing problems. The ban was rolled out to other Irish towns and many of these also recorded a reduction in winter deaths.

A new study has revealed that an old menace has returned to Dublin. Although the coal ban worked in the 1990s, it did not address smokeless coals and solid fuels. Wood and peat are marketed as slow-renewable, green or carbon-neutral biofuels, but their air pollution impacts can be significant. During three weeks in November and December 2016, Dublin breached World Health Organization guidelines for particle pollution on eight days. Chemical analysis of the pollution at these times showed the dominance of peat and wood smoke in the evenings. Overall, the home burning of solid fuel by just 13% of homes was responsible for 70% of the city’s particle pollution.

via Pollutionwatch: wood and peat burning brings return of air pollution to Dublin | Environment | The Guardian

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Green space near home during childhood linked to fewer respiratory problems in adulthood

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Children who have access to green spaces close to their homes have fewer respiratory problems, such as asthma and wheezing, in adulthood, according to new research presented today (Wednesday) at the European Respiratory Society International Congress. In contrast, children who are exposed to air pollution are more likely to experience respiratory problems as young adults.

Until now, little has been known about the association between exposure to air pollution as a child and long-term respiratory problems in adulthood. RHINESSA is a large international study that has been investigating lung health in children and adults in seven European countries, and that has information on residential “greenness” and air pollution exposures from birth onwards from several study centres. In a new analysis, Dr Ingrid Nordeide Kuiper (MD), from the Department of Occupational Medicine at Haukeland University Hospital, Norway, and colleagues analysed greenness data from 5415 participants aged between 18 and 52 years, contributed by RHINESSA centres in Tartu (Estonia), Reykjavik (Iceland), Uppsala, Gothenburg, Umea (Sweden) and Bergen (Norway); they also analysed air pollution data from 4414 participants, contributed from centres in Uppsala, Gothenburg, Umea and Bergen.

They looked at how many people suffered from more than three respiratory symptoms, severe wheeze (in which the person experienced wheezing with breathlessness in the past year but did not have a cold), and late onset asthma (asthma that started after the age of 10 years). Respiratory symptoms included: chest wheezing or whistling; breathlessness when wheezing; wheezing or whistling without a cold; a tight chest on waking; being woken by an attack of shortness of breath; being woken by a cough; asthma attack; and taking asthma medicine.

The researchers calculated average annual exposure to three air pollutants: two sizes of fine particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) [3] from a child’s birth until age 18. They also calculated annual average exposure to “greenness” in a 100-metre zone around the home address for the same period; “greenness” is assessed by means of a Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which uses satellite images to quantify the amount of vegetation in an area.

A total of 608 participants (12%) had more than three respiratory symptoms, 384 (7.7%) had severe wheeze and 444 (9.4%) had late onset asthma.

“These are preliminary results,” said Dr Kuiper, “but we found that exposure to greenness during childhood was associated with fewer respiratory symptoms in adulthood, while exposure to air pollutants in childhood was associated with more respiratory symptoms in adulthood and with late onset asthma.”

Examples of findings from the different centres that contributed data for the analysis showed that, in Bergen, exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 increased the probability of late onset asthma by 6-22%; exposure to PM10 increased the probability of developing respiratory symptoms by 21% in Uppsala and by 23% in Bergen; exposure to greenness before the age of ten was associated with a 71% lower probability of wheeze in Tartu, and exposure to greenness between the ages of 11 and 18 was associated with a 29% lower probability of respiratory symptoms and a 39% lower probability of wheeze in Tartu.

“We need to analyse these findings further before drawing any definite conclusions. However, it is likely that our findings will substantially expand our knowledge on the long-term effects of air pollution and greenness, enabling physicians, scientists and policy-makers to see the importance of exposure to pollution and access to green spaces, and helping to improve public health,” said Dr Kuiper. “We will be conducting further analyses that include more centres that are taking part in the RHINESSA study, and we also want to expand analyses to look at the effects of exposure to air pollution and greenness across generations.”

She concluded: “We believe that our results, seen together with previous results, will be of particular value for city planners and policy-makers; with increasing population density in the years to come it will be vital to include a decrease in air pollution exposures and an increase in access to green spaces in future city plans and societal regulations.”

Professor Mina Gaga is President of the European Respiratory Society, and Medical Director and Head of the Respiratory Department of Athens Chest Hospital, Greece, and was not involved in the study. She said: “This is a fascinating study which underlines the importance for children’s short- and long-term health of having plenty of green space in residential areas. The ongoing work of the RHINESSA study will, no doubt, produce more interesting and useful results to support these early indications. From a clinical point of view, access to green spaces is something that doctors may want to enquire about when they see patients with respiratory problems. They could, for instance, advise their patients about trying to avoid polluted areas and tell them about how green spaces might be able to counter some of the negative effects of pollution.”

via Green space near home during childhood linked to fewer respiratory problems in adulthood — ScienceDaily

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Air pollution linked to much greater risk of dementia

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Risk in over-50s increases by 40% where highest nitrogen oxide levels exist, study shows

Air pollution may increase the chance of developing dementia, a study has suggested, in fresh evidence that the health of people of all ages is at risk from breathing dirty air.

People over 50 in areas with the highest levels of nitrogen oxide in the air showed a 40% greater risk of developing dementia than those with the least NOx pollution, according to the research, based on data from London.

The observational study, published in the BMJ Open journal on Wednesday, cannot establish that air pollution was a direct cause of the dementia cases. However, the authors said the link between higher pollution and higher levels of dementia diagnosis could not be explained by other factors known to raise risks of the disease.

Air pollution has already been linked with cardiovascular and respiratory disease, but this is one of the first studies to examine links with neurodegenerative illness. Frank Kelly, professor of environmental health at King’s College London and one of the authors of the paper, told the Guardian: “The study outcome suggests a linkage [between air pollution and dementia] but cannot inform on the cause. However, I believe that we now have sufficient knowledge to add air pollution to the list of risk factors for dementia. Our calculations suggest that it elevates risk by 7%, so [that would suggest] approximately 60,000 of the total 850,000 dementia cases in the UK, in mathematical terms.”

The new findings add to a growing body of recent research on the wide-ranging effects of air pollution. Earlier this week, Unicef warned of the risk to children from the “toxic” school run, while evidence that particles of pollutants can cross into placentas has just been published.

A ground-breaking study from China recently found a “huge” reduction in intelligence associated with breathing dirty air, equivalent to losing a year’s education.

The Kings College London study adds to previous research suggesting a link with dementia, but scientists warned that the results must be taken cautiously because the observational study could not closely track other possible causes such as lifestyle factors or the relative economic deprivation of the patients studied, or the amount of air pollution each was subject to individually.

The study used estimates of air and noise pollution levels across London and correlated these with anonymised patient health records for 131,000 patients aged between 50 and 79 at 75 GP practices within the M25. Their health was tracked for seven years from 2005, during which period 1.7% of the patients were diagnosed with dementia. Their exposure to air pollution was estimated based on their home postcodes.

Martie Van Tongeren, a professor of occupational and environmental health at Manchester University, who was not involved, said: “There is a growing body of evidence of the link between air pollution and brain health, including dementia and Alzheimer’s. This study adds to this body of evidence and fits with some of the previous studies. As most people in the UK live in urban areas, exposure to traffic-related and other air pollutants is ubiquitous. Hence, even a relatively small increase in risk will result in a large public health impact.”

The paper’s authors said a link between poor air quality and dementia could begin early in life. They wrote: “Traffic related air pollution has been [linked to] poorer cognitive development in young children, and continued significant exposure may produce neuroinflammation and altered brain innate immune responses in early adulthood.”

Campaigners called on the government to take urgent action on air pollution. Simon Alcock, head of UK public affairs for ClientEarth, which has repeatedly taken the government to court over its failures on air quality, called for a national clean air bill backed by an independent watchdog, and clean air zones in the most polluted areas. He said: “Air pollution is damaging our health from the womb to old age. It is unacceptable in 2018 for people to be risking dementia just by breathing.”

Road traffic should be the focus of efforts to clean up our air, as it is the leading cause of the health problems, added Aaron Kiely, air pollution campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “Efforts to clean up our cars, vans and lorries must be put in the fast lane – we can’t afford to wait until 2040 for most new vehicles to be zero-emission,” he said. “Greater investment is also needed in alternatives to motor vehicles, such as safer cycling infrastructure, and affordable and convenient public transport.”

A Defra spokesperson said levels of air pollution, including NOx, had fallen and the government was taking further action: “By ending the sale of conventional new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2040, we are acting faster to tackle air pollution than almost every other major developed economy.”

Labour slammed ministers for failing to address air pollution, which regularly exceeds legal limits in many areas, particularly in London. Sue Hayman, shadow environment secretary, said: “It is simply not good enough for Michael Gove to shunt this problem on to cash-strapped local councils, publish strategies on wood burners and drag his feet on new legislation. [We] would bring forward a new Clean Air Act and a network of clean air zones to tackle the UK’s illegal levels of air pollution in the quickest time possible.”

via Air pollution linked to much greater risk of dementia | Environment | The Guardian

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Green solid fuels contributing to ‘extraordinarily high levels of air pollution’, report finds

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Dublin’s air pollution levels have been found to breach healthy standards.

Researchers at NUI Galway looked at a two-month period between November 2016 and January 2017.

They found the recorded pollution levels breached the World Health Organisation’s limits every one in five days.

During the late evenings, hourly levels were frequently ten times the recommended guidelines.

Researchers say most of the high levels were down to peat and wood burning during colder winter nights.

AEROSOURCE, the first national air pollution network of its kind, attributed 70% of the extraordinarily-high pollution levels during these events to peat and wood burning, despite only a small percentage of residential homes using peat or wood as a primary fuel type (13% based on the closest census data).

Professor Colin O’Dowd, Director of NUI Galway’s Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies, said: “The disproportionate sensitivity of air pollution levels to solid fuel, including climate-friendly ‘low-carbon’ solid biomass fuel is quite concerning since fuels like wood are one of the most popular choices of ‘low carbon’ biomass fuel and consumption of this fuel type is set to double across Europe by 2020 (from 2016), and to triple globally by 2030.

“The results from this study suggest that along with promoting low-carbon or carbon-neutral solid fuels, it is especially important to fully consider the health impact from any associated air pollution emission.”

via Green solid fuels contributing to ‘extraordinarily high levels of air pollution’, report finds | Irish Examiner

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