Air Pollution Linked To Lung Cancer-Driving DNA Mutations, Study Finds (theguardian.com) 42
Air pollution has been linked to a swathe of lung cancer-driving DNA mutations, in a study of people diagnosed with the disease despite never having smoked tobacco. From a report: The findings from an investigation into cancer patients around the world helps explain why those who have never smoked make up a rising proportion of people developing the cancer, a trend the researchers called an "urgent and growing global problem."
Prof Ludmil Alexandrov, a senior author on the study at the University of California in San Diego, said researchers had observed the "problematic trend" but had not understood the cause. "Our research shows that air pollution is strongly associated with the same types of DNA mutations we typically associate with smoking," he said.
The scientists analyzed the entire genetic code of lung tumors removed from 871 never-smokers in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia as part of the Sherlock-Lung study. They found that the higher the levels of air pollution in a region, the more cancer-driving and cancer-promoting mutations were present in residents' tumors. Fine-particulate air pollution was in particular linked to mutations in the TP53 gene. These have previously been associated with tobacco smoking.
Prof Ludmil Alexandrov, a senior author on the study at the University of California in San Diego, said researchers had observed the "problematic trend" but had not understood the cause. "Our research shows that air pollution is strongly associated with the same types of DNA mutations we typically associate with smoking," he said.
The scientists analyzed the entire genetic code of lung tumors removed from 871 never-smokers in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia as part of the Sherlock-Lung study. They found that the higher the levels of air pollution in a region, the more cancer-driving and cancer-promoting mutations were present in residents' tumors. Fine-particulate air pollution was in particular linked to mutations in the TP53 gene. These have previously been associated with tobacco smoking.
Just PVC alone... (Score:2)
Re: Just PVC alone... (Score:3)
Is it any wonder fertility is crashing? If suicide were legalized so that I could legally buy horse tranquilizer and promote my own suicide without getting banned or otherwise silenced, could any sales pitch prevent millions from joining me?
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Re: Just PVC alone... (Score:3)
Is it less horrific if you do it surreptitiously, hiding your intentions, buying the horse tranquilizer on the dark web, like my brother did?
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Now I'm at a loss for words. I want to send you a casserole, but I don't know how to make one. I also think they're disgusting, so I wouldn't want to make one anyhow. Do you like tacos? I make a mean taco and will happily share the recipe. What about chicken parmesan? I have an even better recipe for that. I'll make it for you, should you happen to live near Atlant
Re: Just PVC alone... (Score:2)
What if the horrific state of the world where a meek, nonviolent vegetarian like myself is bombarded by meat ads and even when I try to get away to the National Forest like the other day, I awake to a herd of cattle being driven through my camp, with yeehawing cowboys and cowgirls scaring the cows towards whatever horrific fate awaits them, as they looked at me with deeply hurt eyes? Why isn't it depressing to anyone else that only by accident of birth (cf. Rawls' veil of ignorance) we weren't born in Gaza?
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Why would that be depressing? You won the birthplace lotto. Wouldn't it make more sense to be grateful, not depressed? Heck, I'm going to go ahead and recommend gratitude general
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Why do we treat grief with food? I don't even know you, or how long ago this happened, but my instinctive response is to try and jam food into you. I used to think it was because of an understanding that someone grieving over a loved one is in no shape to cook, but that isn't it. Maybe it's because there really isn't much another person can do to help, so we fall back on providing a basic necessity? What can I offer other than food, prayer (whether you want it or not, I'm doing it), or a shoulder to cry on?
I believe it can be as simple as people in grief are in no position to cook. While I'm not Jewish I'm aware of the tradition of "sitting shiva", a tradition where the family is not expected to leave their home for seven days so as to properly collect their thoughts. The community is expected to bring them food and attend to other needs so they are not otherwise distracted or burdened. There is something similar in Christian faiths, like where I grew up, though rarely so formalized.
Having attended funeral
Re: Just PVC alone... (Score:2)
What is wrong with allowing me to buy a dose of horse tranquilizer (that is what my brother used, but he had to get his illicitly), hiking up to some remote hilltop, and lying myself down for the last time? Why force me to hide my intentions and use illegal websites to obtain my exit method?
Is it because the argument for suicide is so strong that you can't defeat it with words, so you can only ban it?
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I believe you misunderstand my position. I'm not calling for some prohibition on the tools for the removal of pain. I'd rather see proper pain management be available over the counter. If people choose to use that to "end the game called life" then that is up to them. I'm using euphemisms as I fear some algorithmic retaliation if I use certain words.
What I don't want is the open sale of kits for this purpose as that is profiteering on the ending of human life. This should be little different than the l
Re: Just PVC alone... (Score:2)
But in a world where profit from death is so ubiquitous (animal deaths, weapons manufacturers, Blackwater, etc.), how arbitrary is drawing the line at suicide clinics?
From one of my brother's last notes (possibly the last):
"If they can put a man on the moon
You'd think
They could give us totally painless suicide,
available on demand, in clinics, for a fee.
Hell of a profitable business!!! of course,
the criminals would cut corners and the
sadists make you suffer until, like everything
else, you'd be as afraid to g
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Maybe it is my upbringing but I can understand the distinction between the death of an animal versus the death of a human, and the distinction between murder of the innocent versus the killing of another in self defense or in a just war.
The manufacture of weapons doesn't equate to justifying murder. Just as in the case of the sale of VCRs didn't equate to the selling of the means to infringe on copyrights, which was a matter debated in the courts some time ago. So long as there is a legal purpose for a pr
Re:Just PVC alone... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that tobacco didn't cause cancer?
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Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that tobacco didn't cause cancer?
Don't be stupid. Tobacco causes cancer.
Turns out that other things that are as carcinogenic as tobacco also cause cancer. The fact that this needs to be explained to you is fucking mind-boggling, but here we are. 2025, the Idiocracy is in full swing.
Want some gatorade for your crops?
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So, wouldn't it be funny? C'mon, you know it would.
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If that's the case, then I apologize for my tone. These days, it's no so straight forward to tell when a new physical reality has been slated for politicization and reality subjectification.
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And thank you for the apology. I have forgiveness in abundance! Besides, I knew it was just a misunderstanding due to plaintext. No hard feelings arose. I knew you'd get it before long.
My grandfather used to say, "It never rains in Oregon during the summer". Then we came to visit. In the summer. Y'all have a sense of humor over there.
Re: Just PVC alone... (Score:2)
Anyone else remember Woody Allen's "Sleeper"?
Dr. Orva: Here, smoke this. And be sure you get the smoke deep down into your lungs.
Miles Monroe: I don't smoke!
Dr. Orva: It's tobacco! It's one of the healthiest things for your body.
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Therefore - Health!
We are all victims (Score:1)
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Oh, and for Republics, where the government represents the People, don't you ha
Re: We are all victims (Score:1)
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That said, I can't help but think of how amusing it would be if it turned out that some other kind of pollution was causing lung cancer and that tobacco was innocent in the matter.
You're really trying to push this narrative hard.
You smoke? Trying to soothe the cognitive dissonance?
The evidence that tobacco causes several cancers is rock-solid.
The rapid decline of lung cancer following the rapid decline in smoking hasn't 100% kept pace with the decline in smoking. Scientists are curious why. Pollution is (predictably) the answer.
Doctors have guessed this to be the case for a long time.
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Bro, you just posted 9 times to this article. If astroturfing caused cancer you'd have given it to all of us by now.
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Oh, yea, and that reminds me: fuck you for making me agree with him.
Breathing polluted air is bad...what's next? (Score:2)
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If you live in a city (Score:1)
So that got boffins looking into why and they finally solved the problem of, where do your tires go when they wear down?
Think about it do we have to clean the roads of tire gunk? Do we have to wash tire Gunk off buildings all the time?
The stuff has to be going somewhere and the answer turned out to be it's so tiny as a particulate it gets into the
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No shit... (Score:2)
Smoke is bad for the lungs, it can come from smoking or it can come from other sources. There is nothing particular about smoking, it is just a particularly bad case of self-inflicted air pollution.
It doesn't mean the study is worthless of course, we still need to quantify this, and the results may have been surprising, but as it turns out, they are not.