ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Pneumologica 2019 September;58(3):77-84

DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4954.19.01854-6

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Using pollution models to assess the risk of lung cancer in south-eastern Poland

Marek CIERPIAŁ-WOLAN ^{1, 2} ✉, Jan GAWEŁKO ³, Ewa KAZNOWSKA ³, Sebastian WÓJCIK ^{2, 4}

¹ Faculty of Economics, University of Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland; ² Statistical Office in Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland; ³ Faculty of Medicine, University of Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland; ⁴ Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland

BACKGROUND: Particulate matter (PM) is considered one of the most important carcinogens closely related to the occurrence of lung cancer. PM2.5 and PM10 particles are considered in this paper. The aim of the article is to analyze the incidence of lung cancer based on pollution models in Podkarpacie in the years 1995 to 2015.
METHODS: We used data from the measurement stations of the Voivodship (Regional) Inspectorate of Environmental Protection, data from the annual OS-1 statistical reports on the emission of air pollutants and on the state of purification devices and data about the incidence of lung cancer collected by the Epidemiology Department and the Podkarpackie Malignant Tumor Registry of the Chopin Clinical Voivodship Hospital No. 1 in Rzeszów, from 2005 to 2015. New pollution model which integrates dispersed information sources was developed.
RESULTS: Risk ratios reveal that there is a significant association between the incidence of lung cancer and level of PM2.5 and PM10 pollution (RR=1.006 and RR=1.028, respectively). Females seem to be more vulnerable to PM exposure (RR=1.121 and RR=1.149, respectively). Significant dependency between the spatial distribution of the cancer incidences and the level of PM is observed. It allows to derive clear types of association between PM and cancer incidences.
CONCLUSIONS: Risk ratios indicate that pollutants have significant impact on the incidence of cancer in the population, and especially in females. This is particularly important in the context of the increase of economic activity of females. The typology of polluted areas prepared in the work suggests that commuting to work can significantly increase the exposure to PM10 and PM2.5, and thus increase the risk of lung cancer.

KEY WORDS: Particulate matter; Lung neoplasms; Air pollution; Spatial analysis; Odds ratio