New charge for air pollution. Women who live and work in places with higher levels of particulate matter are more at risk of breast cancer than those who live and work in less polluted areas. An increased risk of almost 30%. These are the results of the first study that takes into account the effects of both residential and professional exposure to air pollution on the risk of breast cancer, presented at the congress of the European Society of Medical Oncology (Esmo), underway in Madrid, Spain.

“Our data showed a statistically significant association between long-term exposure to air pollution from fine particles, at home and at work, and the risk of breast cancer – comments Béatrice Fervers, head of the Department of Oncology Prevention from the Comprehensive Cancer Center Léon Bérard, France -. This contrasts with previous research that looked only at exposure to fine particles in homes and showed little or no effect on breast cancer risk.”

In the study, the exposure to home and work pollution of 2,419 women with breast cancer was compared with that of 2,984 women without cancer in the period 1990-2011. The results show that the risk of breast cancer increased by 28% when exposure to fine particle air pollution (Pm2.5) increased by 10 µg/m3 – approximately equivalent to the difference in PM2.5 concentration typically observed in rural areas of Europe compared to urban ones. Smaller increases in the risk of this cancer have also been recorded in women exposed to high levels of air pollution from larger particles (Pm10 and nitrogen dioxide). The researchers now plan to study the effects of exposure to pollution while commuting to get a full picture of the effects on breast cancer risk.