Industrial point source emissions and incident breast and lung cancers: two case-control studies

Better understanding of the environment's role in breast cancer (BC) and lung cancer (LC) incidence is crucial for population health. Growing evidence suggests environmental factors may be relevant for these cancers. We performed two case-control analyses to determine associations between industrial point source emissions, which are proxies for ambient industrial point source-based environmental exposures, and incident BC and LC.

We obtained information for 5,801 female adults with BC, 5,250 adults with LC, and 47,956 cancer-free adult controls over 2010-2023. We linked individuals' residences to releases of 11 agents reported to EPA's Toxics Release Inventory, determining presence and number of facilities and inverse distance-weighted emissions using several geographic buffer distances and lag times. We fit conditional logistic regression models with multiple comparisons adjustments to datasets derived from three matching methods.

We identified positive associations between ethylene oxide and chromium exposures with BC. Associations were consistently positive for presence of ethylene oxide-emitting facilities within 5-20 km and chromium-emitting facilities from 5 to 20 km. We identified positive associations between formaldehyde and chromium exposures with LC. Associations were consistently positive for presence of formaldehyde-emitting facilities within 5-20 km and chromium-emitting facilities from 5 to 20 km.

We observed relationships between industrial point source emissions with BC and LC, particularly for presence of facilities within 5 km of residence. Research should continue examining the role of such emissions for risk of these cancers.