Can pollution increase breast cancer risk by 28%?

Women living and working in places with higher levels of fine particle air pollution are more likely to get breast cancer than those living and working in less polluted areas. The results of the study are presented at the ESMO Congress 2023 in Madrid, Spain.

In the study, home and workplace exposure to pollution in 2419 women with breast cancer was compared to that in 2984 women without breast cancer over the period 1990-2011. The results showed that breast cancer risk increased by 28% when exposure to fine particle (PM2.5) air pollution increased by 10 µg/m3 – approximately equivalent to the difference in PM2.5 particle concentration typically seen in rural versus urban areas of Europe. Smaller increases in breast cancer risk were also recorded in women exposed to high levels of larger particle air pollution (PM10 and nitrogen dioxide).

Following on a proposal from the European Commission in October 2022 to reduce the limit for PM2.5 particles in the air from the current 25 µg/m3 to 10 µg/m3 by 2030, ESMO urged a reduction in the PM2.5 limit still further to 5 µg/m3, in line with the World Health Organisation’s air quality guidance .

More recently, in September 2023, the European Parliament adopted in plenary session its report on the ongoing revision of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directives, which reflects ESMO’s recommendations to set the annual limit value for Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) at 5 µg/m³.

Reference: ESMO Congress 2023