Pollution Free Cities: Traffic, Air Pollution and Breast Cancer

Monday, October 25, 2010

Traffic, Air Pollution and Breast Cancer

: Image via Wikipedia

Postmenopausal Breast Cancer is Associated with Exposure to Traffic-related Air Pollution in Montreal, Canada: A Case-Control Study (35 page pdf, Environ Health Perspect doi:10.1289, Oct. 6, 2010)

Key Quotes:

“Breast cancer has the highest incidence rate of all cancers in women and is the second leading cause of death from cancer in both Canada .. and the United States”

“to determine whether the incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer in Montreal, Quebec, was associated with exposure to intra-urban concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a marker for traffic-related pollution.. Montreal is the second largest city in Canada, with the greater Montreal area having a population over 3.6 million people”

“NO2 is recognised as a marker of traffic-related pollution due to its co-locational association with other pollutants .. placed samplers in areas likely to have high spatial variability in traffic-related pollution and high population densities”

“we found an increased risk of approximately 25 percent for every increase of 5 ppb in exposure.”

“We found an association between exposures to traffic-related air pollution and the incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer in a city that by international standards is relatively unpolluted”

“Our analysis of occupational exposures suggests that exposures to some compounds before the age of 36 may be more important.”