Air pollution causes seven million premature deaths every yar. A coroner found that toxic air contributed to the death of nine year old ella kissy deborah, a girl from south london who died following an asthma attack in 20 13. New research might just change this. It requires pollution to transform the right cell at the right time in the right place into a cancer. And it could make us rethink how cancer begins. From the guardian, i'm madeline finley, and this is science weekly.
According to the World Health Organisation, air pollution causes 7 million premature deaths every year. We’ve known for a long time that air pollution causes lots of health problems, including lung cancer – but exactly how the two were linked was somewhat of mystery. Last week, a team from the Francis Crick Institute and University College London presented findings that shed new light on the role between air pollution and lung cancer. And, in doing so, could make us rethink how cancer develops. Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s science correspondent Hannah Devlin about how scientists uncovered this link – and what it might mean for the future of the field.. Help support our independent journalism at
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