Epidemiological study on the relationship between the environmental pollution and lung cancer in high lung cancer incidence areas, China

Xuanwei and Fuyuan, two counties located in southwest China, are areas with exceptionally high lung cancer incidence since the 1970s. In this study, questionnaires from a total of 18 communes, and 28 administrative villages (consisting of 280 small villages) in the two counties were fulfilled and collected. The sampling sites were randomly chosen in consideration of the incidence rate of lung cancer and the types of coal used. The sampling sites were divided into high lung cancer occurrence areas and low lung cancer occurrence areas. Industrial and environmental information was investigated and finally analyzed for the possible relationship to the lung cancer. It indicated that 78.1 % of the villages in high lung cancer incidence areas had been found using smoky coal or coking coals in people’s everyday lives; 43.4 % of these villages located near the coking factories, 31.1 % near the iron-zinc smelters and 11.8 % near the chemical industries. In the low lung cancer incidence areas, 78.8 % of the villages had been found using non-smoky coals (anthracite) in people’s everyday lives; 26.9 % of these villages are near the coking factories, 23.1 % near the iron-zinc smelters and 5.8 % near the chemical industries. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the coal type used was a foremost risk factor related to incidence of lung cancer [β > 0, Exp (β) >1, P < 0.05]. The use of smoky coals and coking coals seemed to be a hazardous factor for lung cancer generation, while non-smoky coals seemed to have no significant relationship to the lung cancer incidence. The results in this study added basic and important data and should be helpful for the future study on the etiology of lung cancer.