Night pollution a major contributor.
KOLKATA, 5 APRIL: There is a piece of bad news for those Kolkatans who are non-smokers and turn over in their sleep assured in the knowledge that they will never end up like the hero of a novel who shoots himself after finding he is infected with an ailment emanating from an addiction to “little white sticks with yellow tips”. The city has the highest number of lung cancer patients among the five metropolitan cities, and, apart from smoking, a major cause of their ailment is night pollution (see file photo), experts have said.

Cancer has resulted in about six lakh deaths in India in 2010. And over 70 percent of these deaths occurred in the productive age between 30 and 69 years, said a nationally representative survey – “Cancer mortality in India”.

The three most common fatal cancers in men were oral, stomach and lung cancer, the survey said, and cervical breast and stomach in women, said Dr Rajesh Dikshit, Epidemiologist with the Tata Memorial Hospital, and one of the authors in the study.

In a study released by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, heavy diesel exhaust (DE) exposure might increase mortality rates from lung cancer. The study officially began in the 1980's, where the relationship between diesel exhaust and lung cancer was investigated. By 1989, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified diesel exhaust as a probable carcinogen.

There's new evidence that exposure to exhaust from diesel engines increases the risk of lung cancer.

Diesel exhaust has long been classified as a probable carcinogen. But the 20-year study from the National Cancer Institute took a closer look by tracking more than 12,000 workers in certain kinds of mines — facilities that mined for potash, lime and other nonmetals. They breathed varying levels of exhaust from diesel-powered equipment, levels higher than the general population encounters.

Miners exposed to high levels of diesel exhaust have three to five times the risks of lung cancer as workers in occupations where diesel exhaust exposures are less intense, according to a study by government researchers. The study, by researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, shows the dangers of diesel exhaust not only in workplace settings but also for anyone living in urban areas, the researchers said.

Three U.S. consumer groups petitioned the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to subject a new genetically engineered salmon to a more rigorous review process than is now in place before the fish can be approved as safe to eat.

The fish at issue, AquaBounty Technologies' AquAdvantage salmon, is currently classified as a new animal drug for the purposes of FDA review.

Doing so has major implications for public health but moving to a market-linked fuel pricing policy makes more sense.

Anumita Roychowdhuryanumita Roychowdhury
Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment*
“The additional taxes on diesel cars can generate resources to produce clean diesel for all segments to meet public health objectives”

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday held that the government of India should think of prohibiting the import, manufacture and use of asbestos to prevent health hazards. “Asbestos, including the fibre and its products, is banned in all developed countries as it is known to be hazardous to health and is one of the causes of lung cancer. So India should think of its prohibition,” the court said. The court also asked the Central Government and the Customs Commissioner to file a report in this regard.

Steep declines in fatal cases of lung and breast cancer have led the drop in cancer deaths in the United States in the last several years, according to data by the American Cancer Society Wednesday.

In all, more than a million deaths have been avoided since cancer mortality first began to decline at the start of the 1990s, said the Cancer Statistics 2012 report based on US government health data and statistical models.

People who have never smoked, but who live in areas with higher air pollution levels, are roughly 20 percent more likely to die from lung cancer than people who live with cleaner air, researchers conclude in a new study.

"It's another argument for why the regulatory levels (for air pollutants) be as low as possible," said Francine Laden, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the research.

Though smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer, about one in 10 people who develop lung cancer have never smoked.