Air pollution exposure increases risk of common brain tumour, study suggests
Air pollution from traffic and other sources could raise the risk of developing a common type of brain tumour, a study has revealed.
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Multiple air pollutants, including those commonly linked to traffic and often found in urban settings, were analysed by scientists.
Researchers found that exposure to this kind of pollution increases the risk of meningioma.
This typically noncancerous brain tumour is common and forms in the lining of the brain and spinal cord.
According to Macmillan, it makes up around one in three of all primary brain and spinal cord tumours in adults in Britain.
The study, published in the journal Neurology, observed participants over a 21-year period.
Read more: UK air pollution 'killing 500 people a week' - and shortens life by nearly two years, doctors say
16,596 people developed a tumour of the central nervous system during this time, including 4,645 who developed meningioma.
Scientists were able to estimate long-term exposure to air pollution and work out a 10-year average exposure to specific pollutants.
They looked at looked at exposure to ultrafine particles with particles less than 0.1 micrometers in diameter, and fine particulate matter known as PM2.5.
Researchers also observed particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less, and nitrogen dioxide, a gas mostly from traffic emissions.
Elemental carbon, a marker of diesel pollution, was also looked at.
Those in the lowest group had an average 10-year exposure of 11,041 ultrafine particles per centimeter cubed (cm3) compared to 21,715 particles/cm3 among those in the highest level of exposure.
The lowest level of exposure were compared to people with the highest. Researchers accounted for factors including age, sex, socioeconomic status.
People with a higher exposure to pollutants had a greater risk of developing meningioma, the study found.
“Various types of air pollution have been shown to have negative effects on health, and ultrafine particles are small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and may directly affect brain tissue," study author Dr Ulla Hvidtfeldt wrote.
“Our study suggests that long-term exposure to air pollution from traffic and other sources may play a role in the development of meningioma and adds to the growing body of evidence that air pollution can affect the brain – not just the heart and lungs,” added the expert from Danish Cancer Institute in Copenhagen.
However, a strong link between the pollutants and more aggressive brain tumours was not found.
Last month, a study found that air pollution negatively affects almost every organ in the body and around 30,000 UK deaths will be linked to toxic air in 2025.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said that there is "no safe level" of air pollutants as it warned that around 99% of the UK population are breathing in "toxic air".
Exposure to air pollution can shorten people's lives by 1.8 years, which is "just behind some of the leading causes of death and disease worldwide", including cancer and smoking, the authors wrote.
The report highlighted some new research findings about air pollution and ill health over the last decade, including that even if low concentrations air pollution can have impacts on foetal development, cancer, heart disease, stroke, mental health conditions and dementia.