The Air We Breathe Definitively and Scientifically Linked to Cancer

Think Progress / By Kiley Kroh

October 17, 2013  |  Outdoor air pollution has been definitively linked to cancer and is officially classified as a carcinogen, according to research [2] released Thursday by The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization.

 

“The air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances,” said [3] Kurt Straif, head of the IARC’s monographs section, which is tasked with ranking carcinogens.

The IARC’s research found the toll of air pollution on public health worldwide is significant. In 2010 alone, exposure to ambient fine particles was recently estimated to have contributed to 3.2 million premature deaths, predominantly from cardiovascular disease, and 223,000 deaths from lung cancer. More than half of the lung cancer deaths attributable to ambient fine particles were projected to have been in China and other East Asian countries.