Outdoor air pollution and cancer: An overview of the current evidence and public health recommendations

Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries

2018 • 74,955 citations

Lung Cancer, Cardiopulmonary Mortality, and Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Air Pollution

2002 • 8,253 citations

An Association between Air Pollution and Mortality in Six U.S. Cities

1993 • 7,945 citations

The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale

2015 • 5,212 citations

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

2018 • 4,134 citations

Environmental and Health Impacts of Air Pollution: A Review

2020 • 3,378 citations

The Health Consequences of Smoking -- 50 Years of progress: A Report of the Surgeon General

2014 • 3,266 citations

Particulate Air Pollution as a Predictor of Mortality in a Prospective Study of U.S. Adults

1995 • 2,712 citations

Fine-Particulate Air Pollution and Life Expectancy in the United States

2009 • 2,100 citations

Global estimates of mortality associated with long-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter

2018 • 1,918 citations

Smoking and Carcinoma of the Lung

1950 • 1,909 citations

Air pollution and lung cancer incidence in 17 European cohorts: prospective analyses from the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)

2013 • 1,432 citations

Reduction in Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Mortality

2006 • 1,390 citations

International incidence of childhood cancer, 2001–10: a population-based registry study

2017 • 1,363 citations

Oxidative stress and cancer: have we moved forward?

2006 • 1,269 citations

The carcinogenicity of outdoor air pollution

2013 • 1,142 citations

City planning and population health: a global challenge

2016 • 1,029 citations

Extended follow-up and spatial analysis of the American Cancer Society study linking particulate air pollution and mortality.

2009 • 978 citations

Spatial Analysis of Air Pollution and Mortality in Los Angeles

2005 • 940 citations

Chronic Exposure to Fine Particles and Mortality: An Extended Follow-up of the Harvard Six Cities Study from 1974 to 2009

2012 • 936 citations

Arsenic in the geosphere — a review

2000 • 872 citations

Outdoor Particulate Matter Exposure and Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2014 • 831 citations

Long-Term Ozone Exposure and Mortality in a Large Prospective Study

2015 • 777 citations

Impact of air pollution on the burden of chronic respiratory diseases in China: time for urgent action

2016 • 756 citations

Preventable Exposures Associated With Human Cancers

2011 • 717 citations

Lung Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Associated with Ambient Air Pollution and Cigarette Smoke: Shape of the Exposure–Response Relationships

2011 • 683 citations

Rapid DNA Methylation Changes after Exposure to Traffic Particles

2009 • 635 citations

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: From Metabolism to Lung Cancer

2015 • 599 citations

Long-Term Effects of Traffic-Related Air Pollution on Mortality in a Dutch Cohort (NLCS-AIR Study)

2007 • 590 citations

Of Acceptable Risk: Science and the Determination of Safety

1976 • 581 citations

Long-Term Exposure to Urban Air Pollution and Mortality in a Cohort of More than a Million Adults in Rome

2013 • 492 citations

Long-term Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Lung Cancer in a Large Cohort of Never-Smokers

2011 • 488 citations

Ambient PM _2.5 , O ₃ , and NO ₂ Exposures and Associations with Mortality over 16 Years of Follow-Up in the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CanCHEC)

2015 • 475 citations

Household Cooking with Solid Fuels Contributes to Ambient PM_2.5Air Pollution and the Burden of Disease

2014 • 439 citations

Long-Term PM2.5 Exposure and Respiratory, Cancer, and Cardiovascular Mortality in Older US Adults

2017 • 421 citations

Effect of Air Pollution Control on Life Expectancy in the United States

2012 • 379 citations

Association between long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution and mortality in China: A cohort study

2010 • 371 citations

Lung Cancer and Exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide and Traffic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2015 • 367 citations

Effect of Chronic Oxidative Stress on Neuroinflammatory Response Mediated by CD4+T Cells in Neurodegenerative Diseases

2018 • 359 citations

The nexus between air pollution, green infrastructure and human health

2019 • 347 citations

Fine particulate air pollution and human mortality: 25+ years of cohort studies

2019 • 347 citations

Spatial Analysis of Air Pollution and Mortality in California

2013 • 332 citations

Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution and Cardiorespiratory Disease in the California Teachers Study Cohort

2011 • 330 citations

Effects of Particulate Matter on Genomic DNA Methylation Content and iNOS Promoter Methylation

2008 • 329 citations

Use of science to guide city planning policy and practice: how to achieve healthy and sustainable future cities

2016 • 326 citations

Air pollutants, oxidative stress and human health

2008 • 303 citations

DNA methylation and gene silencing in cancer: which is the guilty party?

2002 • 288 citations

Long-term Fine Particulate Matter Exposure and Nonaccidental and Cause-specific Mortality in a Large National Cohort of Chinese Men

2017 • 288 citations

Loss of Tumor Suppressor Gene Function in Human Cancer: An Overview

2018 • 285 citations

Twenty five year mortality and air pollution: results from the French PAARC survey

2005 • 281 citations

Burden of Cause-Specific Mortality Associated With PM_2.5 Air Pollution in the United States

2019 • 279 citations

Mortality Associations with Long-Term Exposure to Outdoor Air Pollution in a National English Cohort

2013 • 278 citations

An Association Between Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution and Mortality From Lung Cancer and Respiratory Diseases in Japan

2011 • 275 citations

Particulate matter air pollution components and risk for lung cancer

2015 • 262 citations

A source apportionment of U.S. fine particulate matter air pollution

2011 • 243 citations

Identifying occupational carcinogens: an update from the IARC Monographs

2018 • 236 citations

Global DNA Hypomethylation in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Passive Demethylation and Association with Genomic Instability

2020 • 233 citations

Ambient Air Pollution and Cancer Mortality in the Cancer Prevention Study II

2017 • 232 citations

The molecular biology of carcinogenesis

1993 • 223 citations

Air Pollution and Mortality in Seven Million Adults: The Dutch Environmental Longitudinal Study (DUELS)

2015 • 215 citations

Air pollution induces heritable DNA mutations

2002 • 210 citations

Active oxygen acts as a promoter of transformation in mouse embryo C3H/10T1/2/C18 fibroblasts.

1984 • 208 citations

Mechanisms of ultrafine particle-induced respiratory health effects

2020 • 207 citations

Mortality Risk and Fine Particulate Air Pollution in a Large, Representative Cohort of U.S. Adults

2019 • 205 citations

Long-Term Trends Worldwide in Ambient NO ₂ Concentrations Inferred from Satellite Observations

2015 • 204 citations

The genotoxicity of ambient outdoor air, a review: Salmonella mutagenicity

2004 • 200 citations

Risk estimates of mortality attributed to low concentrations of ambient fine particulate matter in the Canadian community health survey cohort

2016 • 196 citations

Long-term Concentrations of Nitrogen Dioxide and Mortality

2018 • 195 citations

Using 21st Century Science to Improve Risk-Related Evaluations

2017 • 187 citations

Air pollution from traffic and cancer incidence: a Danish cohort study

2011 • 186 citations

Biomarkers of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from environmental air pollution

2004 • 183 citations

Relationships of mortality with the fine and coarse fractions of long-term ambient PM10 concentrations in nonsmokers

2000 • 177 citations

Air pollution affects lung cancer survival

2016 • 173 citations

Cancer Mortality Risks from Long-term Exposure to Ambient Fine Particle

2016 • 171 citations

National Particle Component Toxicity (NPACT) Initiative: integrated epidemiologic and toxicologic studies of the health effects of particulate matter components.

2013 • 170 citations

Comparison of air pollution exposures in active vs. passive travel modes in European cities: A quantitative review

2017 • 168 citations

Associations between fine particulate matter and mortality in the 2001 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort

2017 • 166 citations

Long-term Residential Exposure to Air Pollution and Lung Cancer Risk

2013 • 165 citations

Long-Term Ambient Multipollutant Exposures and Mortality

2010 • 158 citations

Activation of different pathways of apoptosis by air pollution particulate matter (PM2.5) in human epithelial lung cells (L132) in culture

2006 • 154 citations

Particulate Matter Air Pollution Exposure, Distance to Road, and Incident Lung Cancer in the Nurses’ Health Study Cohort

2014 • 151 citations

Health Benefits of Air Pollution Reduction

2019 • 146 citations

A molecular epidemiological case-control study of lung cancer.

1995 • 145 citations

A Review and Meta-Analysis of Outdoor Air Pollution and Risk of Childhood Leukemia

2015 • 141 citations

Fine Particle Pollution, Alanine Transaminase, and Liver Cancer: A Taiwanese Prospective Cohort Study (REVEAL-HBV)

2015 • 136 citations

Air pollution and retained particles in the lung.

2001 • 135 citations

Associations between long-term PM2.5 and ozone exposure and mortality in the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CANCHEC), by spatial synoptic classification zone

2017 • 127 citations

3-Nitrobenzanthrone, a potential human cancer hazard in diesel exhaust and urban air pollution: a review of the evidence

2005 • 126 citations

Long-term exposure to PM2.5 and ozone and hospital admissions of Medicare participants in the Southeast USA

2019 • 124 citations

Association between Outdoor Air Pollution and Childhood Leukemia: A Systematic Review and Dose–Response Meta-Analysis

2019 • 123 citations

Childhood Cancer and Traffic-Related Air Pollution Exposure in Pregnancy and Early Life

2013 • 119 citations

Occupational exposures to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and respiratory and urinary tract cancers: an updated systematic review and a meta-analysis to 2014

2014 • 115 citations

The Association between Ambient Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Lung Cancer Incidence: Results from the AHSMOG-2 Study

2016 • 110 citations

Oxidative burden of fine particulate air pollution and risk of cause-specific mortality in the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CanCHEC)

2015 • 109 citations

Parental, In Utero, and Early-Life Exposure to Benzene and the Risk of Childhood Leukemia: A Meta-Analysis

2015 • 109 citations

PM2.5 exposure-induced autophagy is mediated by lncRNA loc146880 which also promotes the migration and invasion of lung cancer cells

2016 • 108 citations

Maternal exposure to ambient air pollution and risk of early childhood cancers: A population-based study in Ontario, Canada

2017 • 106 citations

Interventions to reduce ambient air pollution and their effects on health: An abridged Cochrane systematic review

2019 • 105 citations

Air Pollution and Breast Cancer: a Review

2018 • 103 citations

Residential Exposure to Traffic in California and Childhood Cancer

2004 • 102 citations

Particulate matter air pollution and liver cancer survival

2017 • 100 citations

Repeated PM2.5 exposure inhibits BEAS-2B cell P53 expression through ROS-Akt-DNMT3B pathway-mediated promoter hypermethylation

2016 • 98 citations

Long‐term exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution and the risk of lung cancer among participants of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study

2016 • 97 citations

The impact of long-term PM2.5 exposure on specific causes of death: exposure-response curves and effect modification among 53 million U.S. Medicare beneficiaries

2020 • 97 citations

Risk of esophageal, ovarian, testicular, kidney and bladder cancers and leukemia among finnish workers exposed to diesel or gasoline engine exhaust

2004 • 96 citations

Air Pollution, Clustering of Particulate Matter Components, and Breast Cancer in the Sister Study: A U.S.-Wide Cohort

2019 • 93 citations

Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Mortality Among Canadian Women

2015 • 93 citations

Long-term ozone exposures and cause-specific mortality in a US Medicare cohort

2019 • 92 citations

Cancer mortality risk, fine particulate air pollution, and smoking in a large, representative cohort of US adults

2020 • 91 citations

Prenatal Exposure to Traffic-related Air Pollution and Risk of Early Childhood Cancers

2013 • 90 citations

Surrounding green, air pollution, traffic noise exposure and non-accidental and cause-specific mortality

2019 • 90 citations

Transcriptomic Analyses of the Biological Effects of Airborne PM2.5 Exposure on Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells

2015 • 89 citations

Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and incidence of brain tumor: the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)

2017 • 86 citations

Association between ambient air pollution and breast cancer risk: The multiethnic cohort study

2019 • 86 citations

Cellular Pliancy and the Multistep Process of Tumorigenesis

2018 • 84 citations

Characterization of Somatic Mutations in Air Pollution-Related Lung Cancer

2015 • 84 citations

Ambient air pollution and primary liver cancer incidence in four European cohorts within the ESCAPE project

2017 • 83 citations

Organic compounds in tire particle induce reactive oxygen species and heat-shock proteins in the human alveolar cell line A549

2007 • 82 citations

Air pollution and genomic instability: The role of particulate matter in lung carcinogenesis

2017 • 82 citations

Within-city Spatial Variations in Ambient Ultrafine Particle Concentrations and Incident Brain Tumors in Adults

2019 • 82 citations

Residential Traffic Exposure and Childhood Leukemia

2014 • 81 citations

Exposure to ambient air pollution and the incidence of lung cancer and breast cancer in the Ontario Population Health and Environment Cohort

2019 • 79 citations

Long-term residential exposure to PM2.5 constituents and mortality in a Danish cohort

2019 • 79 citations

Health benefits and costs of filtration interventions that reduce indoor exposure to <scp>PM</scp> 2.5 during wildfires

2016 • 78 citations

Effectiveness of commercial face masks to reduce personal PM exposure

2018 • 77 citations

Air pollution and risk of urinary bladder cancer in a case-control study in Spain

2007 • 76 citations

Transforming Our Cities: Best Practices Towards Clean Air and Active Transportation

2019 • 76 citations

Long-term NO2 exposures and cause-specific mortality in American older adults

2019 • 74 citations

Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and mortality in a Chinese tuberculosis cohort

2016 • 73 citations

Particulate matter air pollution components and incidence of cancers of the stomach and the upper aerodigestive tract in the European Study of Cohorts of Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)

2018 • 73 citations

Analysis of 13 32P-DNA Postlabeling Studies on Occupational Cohorts Exposed to Air Pollution

2001 • 73 citations

Outdoor particulate matter (PM10) exposure and lung cancer risk in the EAGLE study

2018 • 73 citations

Interactions Between Cigarette Smoking and Fine Particulate Matter in the Risk of Lung Cancer Mortality in Cancer Prevention Study II

2014 • 73 citations

Methylome-wide association study provides evidence of particulate matter air pollution-associated DNA methylation

2019 • 72 citations

Household air pollution and cancers other than lung: a meta-analysis

2015 • 70 citations

Identifying and quantifying transported vs. local sources of New York City PM2.5 fine particulate matter air pollution

2006 • 69 citations

Ambient PM2.5 air pollution exposure and hepatocellular carcinoma incidence in the United States

2018 • 68 citations

Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter and Breast Cancer Incidence in the Danish Nurse Cohort Study

2016 • 68 citations

Air pollution and incidence of cancers of the stomach and the upper aerodigestive tract in the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)

2018 • 68 citations

Effects of particulate matter exposure on blood 5-hydroxymethylation: results from the Beijing truck driver air pollution study

2015 • 67 citations

White blood cell DNA adducts, smoking, and NAT2 and GSTM1 genotypes in bladder cancer: a case-control study.

1998 • 66 citations

Effects of short‐term exposure to inhalable particulate matter on DNA methylation of tandem repeats

2014 • 66 citations

Air Quality Strategies on Public Health and Health Equity in Europe—A Systematic Review

2016 • 63 citations

Global gene expression profiling of human bronchial epithelial cells exposed to airborne fine particulate matter collected from Wuhan, China

2014 • 62 citations

Traffic‐related air pollution and the incidence of childhood central nervous system tumors: Texas, 2001–2009

2015 • 62 citations

In vitro short-term exposure to air pollution PM2.5-0.3 induced cell cycle alterations and genetic instability in a human lung cell coculture model

2016 • 61 citations

The association between ambient fine particulate matter and incident adenocarcinoma subtype of lung cancer

2017 • 60 citations

Outdoor air pollution and risk for kidney parenchyma cancer in 14 European cohorts

2016 • 60 citations

Breathing the same air? Socioeconomic disparities in PM2.5 exposure and the potential benefits from air filtration

2018 • 58 citations

Association between air pollution and mammographic breast density in the Breast Cancer Surveilance Consortium

2017 • 55 citations

Carcinogen adducts as an indicator for the public health risks of consuming carcinogen-exposed fish and shellfish.

1991 • 53 citations

Mobile phones as monitors of personal exposure to air pollution: Is this the future?

2018 • 52 citations

Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and incidence of brain tumours: The Danish Nurse Cohort

2016 • 50 citations

Disease relevant modifications of the methylome and transcriptome by particulate matter (PM_2.5) from biomass combustion

2017 • 50 citations

Childhood cancer and residential exposure to highways: a nationwide cohort study

2015 • 50 citations

Outdoor Air Pollution: Sources, Atmospheric Transport, and Human Health Effects

2016 • 50 citations

Exposure to airborne PM2.5 suppresses microRNA expression and deregulates target oncogenes that cause neoplastic transformation in NIH3T3 cells

2015 • 47 citations

Air pollution-derived particulate matter dysregulates hepatic Krebs cycle, glucose and lipid metabolism in mice

2019 • 46 citations

Local action on outdoor air pollution to improve public health

2018 • 45 citations

Residential ambient benzene exposure in the United States and subsequent risk of hematologic malignancies

2019 • 44 citations

The air of Europe: where are we going?

2017 • 43 citations

Carcinogen Adducts As an Indicator for the Public Health Risks of Consuming Carcinogen-Exposed Fish and Shellfish

1991 • 43 citations

Is There an Association Between Ambient Air Pollution and Bladder Cancer Incidence? Analysis of 15 European Cohorts

2016 • 42 citations

Generation of gaseous sulfur-containing compounds in tumour tissue and suppression of gas diffusion as an antitumour treatment

2011 • 40 citations

Carcinogenicity of ambient air pollution: use of biomarkers, lessons learnt and future directions.

2015 • 39 citations

Oxidative damage and carcinogenesis

2012 • 39 citations

Residential exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution and incident breast cancer in a cohort of Canadian women

2018 • 39 citations

Exposure to hazardous air pollutants and risk of incident breast cancer in the Nurses’ Health Study II

2018 • 38 citations

In Utero and Early-Life Exposure to Ambient Air Toxics and Childhood Brain Tumors: A Population-Based Case–Control Study in California, USA

2015 • 38 citations

Ambient air pollution and incident bladder cancer risk: Updated analysis of the Spanish Bladder Cancer Study

2019 • 38 citations

Air pollution from traffic and risk for brain tumors: a nationwide study in Denmark

2016 • 36 citations

Chronic long‐term exposure to cadmium air pollution and breast cancer risk in the French E3N cohort

2019 • 35 citations

Associations between incident breast cancer and ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide from a national land use regression model in the Canadian National Breast Screening Study

2019 • 35 citations

Satellite 2 demethylation induced by 5-azacytidine is associated with missegregation of chromosomes 1 and 16 in human somatic cells

2011 • 34 citations

Long-term exposure to air pollution and mammographic density in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort

2015 • 34 citations

microRNA-802/Rnd3 pathway imposes on carcinogenesis and metastasis of fine particulate matter exposure

2016 • 33 citations

Air Pollution and Incidence of Lung Cancer by Histological Type in Korean Adults: A Korean National Health Insurance Service Health Examinee Cohort Study

2020 • 33 citations

Fine urban atmospheric particulate matter modulates inflammatory gene and protein expression in human bronchial epithelial cells

2006 • 32 citations

Association Between Outdoor Air Pollution and Risk of Malignant and Benign Brain Tumors: The Multiethnic Cohort Study

2019 • 31 citations

Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Mortality among Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer Patients

2020 • 30 citations

Traffic‐related air pollution and risk for leukaemia of an adult population

2015 • 29 citations

Airborne mammary carcinogens and breast cancer risk in the Sister Study

2019 • 29 citations

Deep sequencing of the TP53 gene reveals a potential risk allele for non–small cell lung cancer and supports the negative prognostic value of TP53 variants

2017 • 27 citations

Exposure to ambient air pollution in Canada and the risk of adult leukemia

2015 • 26 citations

Particulate Matter and Traffic-Related Exposures in Relation to Breast Cancer Survival

2019 • 26 citations

Residential particulate matter and distance to roadways in relation to mammographic density: results from the Nurses’ Health Studies

2017 • 24 citations

Maternal Residential Proximity to Major Roadways and Pediatric Embryonal Tumors in Offspring

2018 • 18 citations

Controlling Airborne Particles

1980 • 17 citations

Occupational Exposure to Diesel and Gasoline Engine Exhausts and the Risk of Kidney Cancer in Canadian Men

2018 • 16 citations

Multiple Victims of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in the Aftermath of a Wildfire: A Case Series

2018 • 14 citations

Alu Methylation and Risk of Cancer: A Meta-analysis

2020 • 13 citations

Effect of sulfur dioxide on expression of proto‐oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes from rats

2009 • 13 citations

No Association between Traffic Density and Risk of Childhood Leukemia: a Meta-analysis

2014 • 13 citations

Long-term exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents and risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Denmark: A population-based case–control study

2020 • 11 citations

Association between ambient air pollution and proliferation of umbilical cord blood cells

2016 • 11 citations

<scp>Long‐term</scp> exposure to air pollution and risk of n<scp>on‐Hodgkin</scp> lymphoma in Denmark: A population‐based case–control study

2020 • 11 citations

Long interspersed nuclear element-1 methylation status in the circulating DNA from blood of patients with malignant and chronic inflammatory lung diseases

2020 • 10 citations

Evaluation of chromosomal aberrations caused by air pollutants in some taxi drivers from two polluted districts of urban Tehran and its comparison with drivers from rural areas of Lahijan: a pilot study

2014 • 7 citations