Air pollution may be cause of rise from 1973 to 2012
The mortality rate of lung cancer in North China's Hebei Province has quadrupled in the past four decades, with air pollution likely to be main cause, according to statistics released by a Hebei medical institution.
The Hebei Tumor Research Institute, affiliated with the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, recently released statistics of local lung cancer mortality rates from 2012, showing a quadrupling of rates over the last four decades, news portal thepaper.cn reported Friday.
He Yutong, director of the cancer registration office, studied deaths from lung cancer from 1973 to 2012 in Hebei Province. The results showed that the mortality rate of lung cancer from 1973 to 1975 was 9.31 deaths for every 100,000 people, and the figure soared to 35.22 in 2012.
Lung cancer accounted for 22.6 percent of the total mortality of all cancers in Hebei, which was double the national average, according to thepaper.cn.
Although He told thepaper.cn that they did not directly connect the statistics with worsening air pollution in Hebei this time, He's analysis of mortality from lung cancer in Hebei published in 2009 listed air pollution as the prime cause.
He, citing other research, said in her report that there was a positive correlation between air pollution and incidence and death rate of lung cancer.
Hebei Province, the country's largest steel production base, came last for nine months in 2015 among the list of areas with the worst air quality in China.
Hebei surrounds the capital, Beijing, which introduced a red alert system for smog this winter and has also witnessed a soaring lung cancer rate in recent years.
Wang Ning, vice chief of Beijing Office for Cancer Prevention and Control, said that the incidence of lung cancer in Beijing grew from 40 for every 100,000 people in 2002 to 63 in 2011.
China is researching and studying the health impact of smog, which could be a lengthy process. But smog's impact on human health remains unclear at the current stage, Zhou Jun, a division director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said in December 2015, during a news briefing.
Zhang Jinliang, a professor with the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, told the Global Times that the development of technology and medical services could result in lung cancers being recorded that previously went unnoticed.
But, she added, scientists have proved the negative impact of air pollutants to human health.
It also affects respiratory, reproductive and cardiovascular systems, as well as the lung development of infants, Zhang said, adding that it could cause psychological problems like depression and autism.
