The effects of air pollutants on the mortality rate of lung cancer and leukemia

Air pollution is classified as the first cause of human cancer by World Health Organization. Aim of this study was investigate impact of air pollutants on the mortality rates of lung cancer and leukemia in Shiraz, one of bigger city of Iran. This cross-sectional (longitudinal) study was carried out in Shiraz. Data about six main pollutants, as CO, SO2, O3, NO2, PM10 and PM2.5, have been collected from Fars Environmental Protection Agency for 3001 days starting from Jan.1, 2005. Also, measures of climatic factors (temperature, humidity, and air pressure) were obtained from Shiraz Meteorological Organization. Finally, data related to number of deaths due to lung and blood cancers (leukemia) were gathered from Shiraz University Hospital. Relationship between variations of pollutants concentrations and cancers in lung and blood was investigated using two statistical software as R and MiniTab to perform time series analysis. Results of our study revealed that the mortality rate of leukemia had a direct significant correlation with concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide in the air (p <0,05). Therefore, special attention should be paid to sources of these pollutants and we need to better management finalized to decrease air pollutants concentrations through, e.g., using clean energy respect to fossil fuels, to better management urban traffic planning, and the improvement of public transport service and car sharing.