Not Only Smoking: Preventing Lung Cancers Caused by Environmental Exposures

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide and a significant global health challenge. While tobacco smoking remains the single largest cause of lung cancer, a significant proportion of lung cancers occur in non-smokers. Overall, between 15% and 30% of all lung cancers are caused by environmental exposures. Globally, air pollution, specifically particulate matter (PM), contributes to nearly 20% of all lung cancer diagnoses, with asbestos, residential radon, and arsenic in drinking water also being significant environmental lung carcinogens. To move lung cancer prevention forward, attention must be paid to environmental causes while also effectively tackling cigarette smoking. Given the geospatial nature of many environmental exposures, geospatial approaches offer considerable potential to support lung cancer prevention. This chapter summarizes, at the global scale, the key environmental (non-smoking) determinants of lung cancer. Geospatial analysis methods that can be applied to PM, the most significant non-smoking cause of lung cancer, are highlighted. To effectively reduce and prevent PM-attributable lung cancer, a comprehensive strategy is imperative, encompassing improved assessment of air pollution and the implementation of innovative mitigation strategies, including appropriate pollution regulation and control. Geospatial tools offer immense potential for quantifying and highlighting the impact of environmental exposures on one of the most significant cancers worldwide. These tools support effective and equitable prevention activities to reduce the considerable global burden of lung cancer and should be implemented alongside approaches to reduce smoking rates.