American Lung Association Faults Environmental Protection Agency for Ignoring Deadly Particle Pollution in Five U.S. Cities in List Released Today

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Lung Association faults the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for leaving five U.S. cities off its list of those required to take immediate action to reduce particle pollution in the air. This deadly omission puts public health in the following metropolitan areas at considerable risk: Houston, Texas; Augusta, Georgia; Columbus, Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina; and Fairmont, West Virginia. In addition, EPA left many individual counties off the list despite the impact of emissions from those counties on pollution in metropolitan areas.
Particle pollution is typically a mixture of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals and aerosols. It can trigger heart attacks and strokes, and cause irregular heartbeats, lung cancer and premature births. Breathing particle pollution year-round can shorten life by one to three years. The five cities omitted from the EPA's list all showed unhealthy year-round levels of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5. In its list released today, the EPA only identified counties and metropolitan areas that experience unhealthy spikes in particulate matter pollution over the course of a 24-hour period.
The Clean Air Act requires that the EPA officially notify all localities with documented unhealthy levels of particulate air pollution so that leaders can begin to make necessary changes.
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Inexpensive Test Can Help Prevent Lung Cancer Caused By Radon

Common Food Additive Found To Increase Risk And Speed Spread Of Lung Cancer

ScienceDaily (Dec. 30, 2008) — New research in an animal model suggests that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a variety of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might speed growth of lung cancer tumors and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in individuals predisposed to the disease.
The study also suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may play an important role in lung cancer treatment. The research, using a mouse model, was conducted by Myung-Haing Cho, D.V.M., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Seoul National University, appears in the first issue for January of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
"Our study indicates that increased intake of inorganic phosphates strongly stimulates lung cancer development in mice, and suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may be critical for lung cancer treatment as well as prevention," said Dr. Cho.
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Something In the Air

When a Smoker Gets Lung Cancer, Sympathy Is Stained With Blame

By: Petula Dvorak Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 16, 2008

It took me a while to figure out why my dad refused the free blanket in the cancer ward.
The lady from the Cancer Society came into his room wheeling a cart stacked with colorful blankets. Crocheted by volunteers, they offered homespun comfort to folks recovering from surgeries that had cut out tumors, lesions, slabs of skin, pieces of colon, entire breasts or, in my father's case, a lobe of his left lung.
"No, not for me," said my father, a rugged brick mason who kicked his 45-year, pack-a-day smoking habit two months before the surgery.
I took one of the blankets for him, but for days it lay untouched on the chair in his hospital room. "That's for the other people," he said, pointing to rooms where cancer battles were also being fought.
My answer about his blanket aversion came a couple of days later. The stitches were bothering him, he was sick of the hospital food, but most of all, the 63-year-old fly fisherman who bicycles to work was furious at being debilitated. He offered the entire ordeal's one bit of analysis in his thick Eastern European accent.
"All these years of smoking. I had all that pleasure," he said. "Now, I pay."
He had been beating himself up for having lung cancer. And the rest of us in the family, though we didn't want to admit it, weren't exactly showering him with forgiveness.
It's a common syndrome for this particular type of cancer, which is consistently marginalized, stigmatized, under-funded and under-studied, even though it kills more people in the United States every year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance, an advocacy group in Washington.
It is becoming clear to patient advocates that the mental health of lung cancer patients -- who rarely get the positive reinforcement, unfettered support and kindness of society -- is also worth defending.
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In this issue, we celebrate ways we are working to keep our efforts to fund Lung Cancer research and save more lives, alive and thriving, despite tough times. As we prepare to enter a new year, we look forward to our ongoing lifesaving efforts and we look back with gratitude on the last almost three years and the tremendous strides we have made.
Since we began, and because of you, we have been able to make considerable contributions to early detection, Lung Cancer research specific to patients, education to countless patients for better treatment paths, a plan for an unprecedented prevention and cessation program targeted at adolescents, and last but not least...building the framework for the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute which will increase that unforgivable survival rate of 15.5%.Thank you for your generosity.
Happy holidays and cheers to what lies ahead…
With Love,Bonnie J. Addario