Letter: concerns about link between pollution and cancer

To The Editor,

Letters1I have four daughters, all young adults now. But I still worry about their health and well-being as much as I did when they were living at home with me.  Lately I have heard much about an alarming increase in the number of women diagnosed with lung disease.  According to the American Lung Association, the rate of newly diagnosed lung cancer cases over the past 33 years has dropped for men (22% decrease) but has risen for women (106% increase).  

As a woman with daughters, these statistics frighten me.  They also make me wonder what I can do to stop this shocking trend.

Air pollution contributes significantly to the rising number of women living with lung disease. In fact, the World Health Organization recently declared that all outdoor air pollution is carcinogenic. And twenty percent of those diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked.  Twenty percent. That number truly scares me.  These people contract lung cancer through exposure to environmental factors, such as industrial pollution and second-hand smoke, which are seemingly beyond their control.  We must do what we can to gain control over these elements.

And we can start by supporting our local chapter of the American Lung Association (ALA), an organization that advocates and fights for clean and healthy air in Pennsylvania.  The ALA works hard on behalf of our lungs.  Please help and do what you can.  Our daughters’ health depends on our actions.

 

Linda Boggs

Landenberg

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2 Comments

  1. I believe that nearly every mill worker who retired from Lukens Steel Company has some degree of asbestosis. Even people who spent most of their time working outside of the buildings have asbestosis.

    I remember flying over Coatesville in the early 1950s. Usually only one half of the city was visible. The other half was covered in smoke from the coke ovens. I think people forget how terrible air pollution once was in Coatesville.

  2. cville life says:

    what a stupid letter so air pollution causes lung cancer in women to increase 100% but it makes it decrease in men by 22% maybe we need to find out the real reason. I am sure air pollution has some little part in lung cancer but not like this. I would like to see the study that proves air pollution play a significant part in women with lung cancer and yet has no or positive effects on men. WOW another slanted reach

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