How can air pollution cause cancer?

What is outdoor air pollution?

Air pollution includes outdoor and indoor air pollution. Both can increase the risk of lung cancer as well as respiratory and heart diseases.

Outdoor air pollution is a mixture of tiny dust-like particles and substances in the air that have the potential to negatively impact health. It can be artificial, such as fumes from vehicles or factories and smoke from burning fuels like wood or coal. But it also includes natural sources of pollutants, such as wind-blown dust, radon and ozone. Research on air pollution usually looks at the smallest particles, called ‘particulate matter’ or PM.

What is the cancer risk from air pollution in the UK?

Outdoor air pollution causes roughly 1 in 10 cases of lung cancer in the UK. But, it’s important to keep this in perspective. Smoking has a much bigger effect on the risk of developing lung cancer – it causes around nine times more lung cancer cases than air pollution.

Air pollution levels in the UK are lower than in many other countries. There are regulations, limits and targets for air quality that the UK Government agree to meet, to lower the health risks from air pollution. Average levels of most outdoor air pollutants in the UK are within these limits, including particulate matter.

What can I do to reduce my cancer risk?

We can’t avoid air pollution completely, and you don’t need to avoid going outside.

There are other things that affect your risk of cancer more than air pollution. Not smoking, keeping a healthy weight, staying safe in sun and cutting down on alcohol are all proven ways you can reduce your risk of cancer.

How can air pollution cause lung cancer?

Because air pollution contains a mixture of polluting particles, there are a few ways air pollution could cause lung cancer. For example, tiny particles may build up in the lungs and damage the DNA in cells. This can change how cells divide, which can lead to cancer.

Researchers are investigating how tiny particles may cause inflammation in the lungs that can lead to cancer. You can read more about how air pollution can cause lung cancer in our digital news article.

It has not been proven that air pollution causes other types of cancer.

How can we reduce air pollution levels?

Cancer Research UK is a member of the Healthy Air Coalition, which calls for national and local strategies to reduce outdoor air pollution across the country. The UK Government must commit to long-term action to reduce air pollution.

There are some things we can do as individuals to reduce our contribution to air pollution, too. Making more journeys by walking, wheeling or cycling lowers emissions compared with driving, and is a great way to be more active too.

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