Published in:
01-03-2013 | Original paper
Indoor air pollution and risk of lung cancer among Chinese female non-smokers
Authors:
Lina Mu, Li Liu, Rungui Niu, Baoxing Zhao, Jianping Shi, Yanli Li, Mya Swanson, William Scheider, Jia Su, Shen-Chih Chang, Shunzhang Yu, Zuo-Feng Zhang
Published in:
Cancer Causes & Control
|
Issue 3/2013
Login to get access
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate indoor particulate matter (PM) level and various indoor air pollution exposure, and to examine their relationships with risk of lung cancer in an urban Chinese population, with a focus on non-smoking women.
Methods
We conducted a case–control study in Taiyuan, China, consisting of 399 lung cancer cases and 466 controls, of which 164 cases and 218 controls were female non-smokers. Indoor PM concentrations, including PM1, PM2.5, PM7, PM10, and TSP, were measured using a particle mass monitor. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals after adjusting for age, education, annual income, and smoking.
Results
Among non-smoking women, lung cancer was strongly associated with multiple sources of indoor air pollution 10 years ago, including heavy exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at work (aOR = 3.65), high frequency of cooking (aOR = 3.30), and solid fuel usage for cooking (aOR = 4.08) and heating (aORcoal stove = 2.00). Housing characteristics related to poor ventilation, including single-story, less window area, no separate kitchen, no ventilator, and rarely having windows open, are associated with lung cancer. Indoor medium PM2.5 concentration was 68 μg/m3, and PM10 was 230 μg/m3. PM levels in winter are strongly correlated with solid fuel usage for cooking, heating, and ventilators. PM1 levels in cases are more than 3 times higher than that in controls. Every 10 μg/m3 increase in PM1 is associated with 45 % increased risk of lung cancer.
Conclusions
Indoor air pollution plays an important role in the development of lung cancer among non-smoking Chinese women.