Overview of the risk of respiratory cancer from airborne contaminants
This overview on defining risk of respiratory cancer from airborne pollutants summarizes broad issues related to a number of the environmental agents that are discussed in the articles that follow. Lung cancer kills more than 100,000 people annually and is the major form of cancer in both sexes in middle age. Cigarette smoking is the major cause of respiratory cancer and must be taken into account in any study of the effect of an environmental agent on the risk of respiratory cancer, particularly at relatively low levels of excess risk. The agents considered in this series all have the potential for widespread community exposures, either because there is widespread long-term exposure (passive smoking), the agents are direct byproducts of energy consumption (organic particles), have ubiquitous production and use patterns (formaldehyde and fibers), or occur widely in natural settings (radon). Several issues--measurement of exposure, latency, confounding factors and bias, extrapolation from animals to humans, population at risk, and attributable risk--must be considered for each agent. A further issue related to exposure estimates is the relationship of exposure to actual dose. Understanding exposure some 25 to 40 years in the past is important because of the prolonged latency period in the development of respiratory cancers. To the degree that these agents act synergistically with smoking, the reduction of smoking or of exposure to these agents may have greater public health consequences than would be anticipated from the directly measured attributable risk of each of these agents separately.
- Research Organization:
- Harvard Univ., Boston, MA
- OSTI ID:
- 6785500
- Journal Information:
- Environ. Health Perspect.; (United States), Journal Name: Environ. Health Perspect.; (United States)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
NEOPLASMS
RADIOINDUCTION
RISK ASSESSMENT
POLLUTANTS
CARCINOGENESIS
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
AIR POLLUTION
ASBESTOS
FORMALDEHYDE
LATENCY PERIOD
PARTICULATES
RADON
REVIEWS
SYNERGISM
TOBACCO SMOKES
AEROSOLS
ALDEHYDES
COLLOIDS
DISEASES
DISPERSIONS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
GASES
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARTICLES
PATHOGENESIS
POLLUTION
RARE GASES
RESIDUES
SMOKES
SOLS
560300* - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
560161 - Radionuclide Effects
Kinetics
& Toxicology- Man