At eight, this young girl no longer has the same carefree attitude as her classmates. For good reason, this little Chinese girl, whose identity has not been revealed to the press, was overtaken by the disease. She was diagnosed with lung cancer, a condition that is usually detected on average at age 70. The little one, who grew up near a busy highway in Jiangsu province, triggered the disease after breathing dust and particles for a long time, doctors said.
The news agency China New, which reports the information, says that the girl holds the sad record of the youngest person with lung cancer in China. This would only be the first case in a long series in the country as air pollution is reaching dramatic levels in several Chinese metropolises. Industries and road traffic represent major sources of contamination that blow up the particulate exposure limits recommended by the WHO. In Beijing, for example, the concentration of particles would be 40 times greater than the threshold limit.
Thousands of premature deaths
These alarming levels have a direct impact on the health of the population. And this girl is just one example of the dangers posed by air pollution. Unofficial reports speak of hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in China linked to the poisonous air. According to the South China Morning Post, taken up by Enviro2B, the number of cancers rose by 56% between 2001 and 2010. Lung cancer would have become the main cause of death in men. Among Chinese women, it would come just behind breast cancer.
The pollution increases the risk of lung cancer, it is no longer a mystery. WHO has taken note of this association and has decided to classify air pollution as carcinogenicoutside. In Europe, 90% of urban people are exposed to pollution particles above the recommended thresholds, according to INPES, the European Environment Agency.