Researchers from Inserm, the University of Rennes 1 and the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health (EHESP) are interested in one of the components of fine particles, soot carbon (black carbon in English) and its effects on health. Their study suggests that the higher the levels of carbon soot exposure in the home, the greater the risk of lung cancer. The results of their work on the 200,000 participants of the Gazel cohort, set up by Inserm, thus show that the people most exposed to carbon soot since 1989 have an increased risk of cancer in general of around 20. % compared to people least exposed. This excess risk is 30% for lung cancer.
“This compound could therefore partly explain the carcinogenic effects of air pollution”, stress the scientists.
How to protect yourself from carbon-soot?
“At the individual level, it is difficult to recommend measures that can be taken to limit exposure to carbon soot from ambient air particles,” the researchers explain. “Nevertheless, it is possible to adjust public policies if we can show which pollutants are the most harmful in air pollution. For example by taking specific measures against carbon soot which comes mainly from traffic. automobile “, underlines Bénédicte Jacquemin, last author of the study.
In 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified all fine particles as certain carcinogens to humans. But not all fine particles have the same effect on health and carbon-soot, which is derived of incomplete combustions, has already been singled out by the World Health Organization (WHO), which published a report on its deleterious effects on health cardiopulmonary.
Remember that, according to a report from Public Health France, fine particles cause 48,000 deaths each year in France, almost as many as alcohol.
Source:
Contribution of long-term exposure to outdoor black carbon to the carcinogenicity of air pollution: evidence regarding risk of cancer in the Gazel cohort, EHP, March 2021
Read also :
- Which French cities are the most polluted?
- Air pollution: one in two deaths could be avoided
- Why is it better to drive with the windows open in a new car?
- In the Paris metro, the air is (still) very polluted