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The association between air pollution and cancers: controversial evidence of a systematic review

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Abstract

There are inconsistent reports on the association between air pollution and cancers. This systematic review was, therefore, conducted to ascertain the relationship between air pollution and some cancers. This is a systematic review study, which all articles published in this area were extracted from January 1, 1950 to December 31, 2018 from Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Direct, Google scholar. Searching was performed independently by two search-method experts. The required data were extracted from the articles by an author-made questionnaire. Forty-eight articles were investigated. Evidence linking air pollution to some cancers is limited. Leukemia had the highest association with exposure to various air pollutants and bladder cancer had the lowest association. It is noteworthy that the specific type of pollutants in all studies was not specified. Based on the findings, the results are contradictory, and the role of air pollution in some cancers cannot be supported. Accordingly, studies are recommended to be performed at the individual level or multifactorial studies to specifically investigate the relationship between air pollution and these types of cancers. In this way, the role of air pollution in the incidence of these cancers can be determined more accurately.

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Funding

This article is funded by the “Iran National Science Foundation” and the “The University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health in Emergency and Disaster Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Negar Pourvakhshoori & Mehrdad Farrokhi

  2. Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Negar Pourvakhshoori

  3. Department of Clinical Science and Education, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Hamid Reza Khankeh

  4. DFPA Academy of Work and Health, Leipzig, Germany

    Marcus Stueck

  5. International Research Academy BIONET, Leipzig, Germany

    Marcus Stueck

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  1. Negar Pourvakhshoori
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  2. Hamid Reza Khankeh
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  3. Marcus Stueck
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  4. Mehrdad Farrokhi
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Correspondence to Mehrdad Farrokhi.

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Pourvakhshoori, N., Khankeh, H.R., Stueck, M. et al. The association between air pollution and cancers: controversial evidence of a systematic review. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 38491–38500 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10377-z

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