Long term exposure to air pollution and kidney parenchyma cancer - Effects of low-level air pollution: a Study in Europe (ELAPSE)

Ulla Arthur Hvidtfeldt; Tahir Taj; Jie Chen; Sophia Rodopoulou; Maciej Strak; Kees de Hoogh; Zorana J Andersen; Tom Bellander; Jørgen Brandt; Daniela Fecht; Francesco Forastiere; John Gulliver; Ole Hertel; Barbara Hoffmann; Jeanette T Jørgensen; Klea Katsouyanni; Matthias Ketzel; Anton Lager; Karin Leander; Petter Ljungman; Patrik K E Magnusson; Gabriele Nagel; Göran Pershagen; Debora Rizzuto; Evangelia Samoli; Rina So; Massimo Stafoggia; Anne Tjønneland; Roel Vermeulen; Gudrun Weinmayr; Kathrin Wolf; Jiawei Zhang; Emanuel Zitt; Bert Brunekreef; Gerard Hoek; Ole Raaschou-Nielsen

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2022.114385

Long term exposure to air pollution and kidney parenchyma cancer - Effects of low-level air pollution: a Study in Europe (ELAPSE)

Environ Res. 2022 Dec;215(Pt 2):114385. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114385. Epub 2022 Sep 22.

Authors

Ulla Arthur Hvidtfeldt¹, Tahir Taj², Jie Chen³, Sophia Rodopoulou⁴, Maciej Strak⁵, Kees de Hoogh⁶, Zorana J Andersen⁷, Tom Bellander⁸, Jørgen Brandt⁹, Daniela Fecht¹⁰, Francesco Forastiere¹¹, John Gulliver¹², Ole Hertel¹³, Barbara Hoffmann¹⁴, Jeanette T Jørgensen⁷, Klea Katsouyanni¹⁵, Matthias Ketzel¹⁶, Anton Lager¹⁷, Karin Leander¹⁸, Petter Ljungman¹⁹, Patrik K E Magnusson²⁰, Gabriele Nagel²¹, Göran Pershagen⁸, Debora Rizzuto²², Evangelia Samoli⁴, Rina So⁷, Massimo Stafoggia²³, Anne Tjønneland²⁴, Roel Vermeulen²⁵, Gudrun Weinmayr²¹, Kathrin Wolf²⁶, Jiawei Zhang⁷, Emanuel Zitt²⁷, Bert Brunekreef³, Gerard Hoek³, Ole Raaschou-Nielsen²⁸

Affiliations

¹ Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: ullah@cancer.dk.
² Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark; Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medical Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.
³ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁵ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
⁶ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁷ Section of Environment and Health, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁸ Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Centre for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁹ Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark; Climate - Interdisciplinary Centre for Climate Change, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark.
¹⁰ MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
¹¹ Department of Epidemiology, Lazio Region Health Service/ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy; Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK.
¹² MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability & School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
¹³ Departments of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark.
¹⁴ Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Centre for Health and Society, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
¹⁵ Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece; MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
¹⁶ Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark; Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom.
¹⁷ Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹⁸ Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹⁹ Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Cardiology, Danderyd University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁰ Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
²¹ Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
²² Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, Stockholm, Sweden.
²³ Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Epidemiology, Lazio Region Health Service/ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy.
²⁴ Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
²⁵ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
²⁶ Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany.
²⁷ Agency for Preventive and Social Medicine (aks), Bregenz, Austria; Department of Internal Medicine 3, LKH Feldkirch, Feldkirch, Austria.
²⁸ Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark.

PMID: 36154858
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114385

Abstract

Background: Particulate matter (PM) is classified as a group 1 human carcinogen. Previous experimental studies suggest that particles in diesel exhaust induce oxidative stress, inflammation and DNA damage in kidney cells, but the evidence from population studies linking air pollution to kidney cancer is limited.

Methods: We pooled six European cohorts (N = 302,493) to assess the association of residential exposure to fine particles (PM_2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), black carbon (BC), warm season ozone (O₃) and eight elemental components of PM_2.5 (copper, iron, potassium, nickel, sulfur, silicon, vanadium, and zinc) with cancer of the kidney parenchyma. The main exposure model was developed for year 2010. We defined kidney parenchyma cancer according to the International Classification of Diseases 9th and 10th Revision codes 189.0 and C64. We applied Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for potential confounders at the individual and area-level.

Results: The participants were followed from baseline (1985-2005) to 2011-2015. A total of 847 cases occurred during 5,497,514 person-years of follow-up (average 18.2 years). Median (5-95%) exposure levels of NO₂, PM_2.5, BC and O₃ were 24.1 μg/m³ (12.8-39.2), 15.3 μg/m³ (8.6-19.2), 1.6 10^-5 m^-1 (0.7-2.1), and 87.0 μg/m³ (70.3-97.4), respectively. The results of the fully adjusted linear analyses showed a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.03 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.92, 1.15) per 10 μg/m³ NO₂, 1.04 (95% CI: 0.88, 1.21) per 5 μg/m³ PM_2.5, 0.99 (95% CI: 0.89, 1.11) per 0.5 10^-5 m^-1 BCE, and 0.88 (95% CI: 0.76, 1.02) per 10 μg/m³ O₃. We did not find associations between any of the elemental components of PM_2.5 and cancer of the kidney parenchyma.

Conclusion: We did not observe an association between long-term ambient air pollution exposure and incidence of kidney parenchyma cancer.

Keywords: Kidney cancer incidence; Nitrogen dioxide; Ozone; PM elemental Components; Particulate matter; air Pollution.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollutants* / toxicity
Air Pollution* / adverse effects
Air Pollution* / analysis
Carbon / analysis
Carcinogens / analysis
Copper / analysis
Environmental Exposure / adverse effects
Environmental Exposure / analysis
Europe / epidemiology
Humans
Iron / analysis
Kidney
Kidney Neoplasms* / chemically induced
Kidney Neoplasms* / epidemiology
Nickel
Nitrogen Dioxide / analysis
Nitrogen Dioxide / toxicity
Ozone* / analysis
Particulate Matter / analysis
Particulate Matter / toxicity
Potassium / analysis
Silicon
Soot / analysis
Sulfur / analysis
Vanadium
Vehicle Emissions / analysis
Zinc / analysis

Substances

Air Pollutants
Carcinogens
Particulate Matter
Soot
Vehicle Emissions
Vanadium
Ozone
Sulfur
Carbon
Copper
Nickel
Iron
Zinc
Potassium
Nitrogen Dioxide
Silicon

Grants and funding

MR/S019669/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom