Cancer is largely caused by air pollution, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in France, part of the World Health Organization, said in a report released Thursday.
"The air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances," Dr. Kurt Straif, head of the IARC Monographs Section, said in a statement. The organization also noted an obvious connection between air pollution and an increased risk of bladder cancer, although the findings were less conclusive.
"We now know that outdoor air pollution is not only a major risk to health in general, but also a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths." Air pollution has now officially been branded as carcinogenic by the organization.
Air pollution is caused by car fumes, power stations, emissions from agriculture and industry - as well as indoor heating. Air pollution has already been tied to respiratory and heart diseases. As an increase in pollution occurs, particularly in rapidly industrializing countries with large populations, more people are becoming vulnerable to the negative effects of air pollution.
The report analyzed the latest available data which attributed 223,000 lung cancer deaths around the in 2010 to air pollution. IARC researchers looked at over 1,000 reports on air pollution cases to reach their conclusion regarding the harmful effects of air pollution.
Meanwhile, Cancer Research UK said the results were expected.
"It's important that people keep the risk from air pollution in perspective, said Julie Sharp, the head of health information at Cancer Research UK according to the BBC.
"Although air pollution increases the risk of developing lung cancer by a small amount, other things have a much bigger effect on our risk, particularly smoking."
A summary is scheduled to be published online in The Lancet Oncology next Thursday.
