WHO agency: Air pollution causes cancer

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/national/who-agency-air-pollution-causes-cancer/nbQy7/

Category: Environment

Level: National

This article concerns potential policies that affect individuals and families.

This article discusses the World Health Organization findings that air pollution causes cancer.

My views:

It’s becoming more common for cigarette smoking to be banned indoors, in public parks, and on college campuses. This is because there is a clear connection between second hand smoke and lung cancer and because there is a simple and effective solution: allow those who choose not to smoke to not be subjected to cigarette smoke from others. This article shows that there is air pollution causes cancer and that, worldwide, it causes more cancer than second-hand cigarette smoke.

Although the countries with the worst air pollution are developing countries such as China and India, air pollution is high in many American cities as well. We need to impose stricter policy on things that contribute to air pollution such as emissions from industries and manufacturing facilities, cars, trucks, and agricultural activities such as crop dusting. According to this study, reducing emissions from these things would reduce our risk of developing cancers such as lung cancer and bladder cancer.

It’s no use waiting for private industry to clean itself up and private citizens will only go so far to limit their use of fossil fuels. Right now, industries are charged fines for their emissions but it is impossible to calculate how much harm a manufacturing plant may be doing worldwide, how many cases of cancer may be attributed to their emissions, and how much it will cost the individuals affected.

My family is from the American city with the most severe fine particulate air pollution, Bakersfield, California, and I lived there with my grandmother for many years. She and many of her neighbors have died from cancer. There are many factors that contribute to the development of cancer and we don’t know how much the environment played in her disease. The impossibility to determine the exact cause, however, illustrates the need to prevent exposure to carcinogens rather than fining those who produce them.