Abstract CN08-03: How does air pollution cause cancer?

In October 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluated outdoor air pollution and associated particulate matter (PM) as group 1 (known) human carcinogens for the lung and probable carcinogens for the bladder. Although the IARC monograph on outdoor air (Vol. 109) will not be published until late 2014, this talk reviews some of the main mechanistic data that supported this evaluation. The IARC working group consisted of four sub-groups: epidemiology, animal cancer, exposure, and mechanistic data. Six people comprised the mechanistic sub-group, and this talk is an overview of their review of the literature, which covered more than 30 years and 800 publications on the genetic and related effects of air pollution. More than 2,500 measurements of the mutagenicity in Salmonella (Ames assay) of outdoor air samples from around the world showed that the mutagenicity of outdoor air ranges over 6 orders of magnitude in potency (revertants/m3); however, the mutagenic potency of the extractable organics from the PM ranges only over 1 order of magnitude. This indicates that the general chemical composition and mutagenic potency of the PM is similar around the world; what varies is the amount of this PM per cubic meter of air, i.e., its concentration. Worldwide, air is generally more mutagenic during working hours (due to traffic) and during winter (due to heating emissions). More than 90 measurements compared genotoxicity biomarkers between people whose daily work ...
Source: Cancer Prevention Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Other Risk Factors: Oral Presentations - Invited Abstracts Source Type: research