Air pollution from biomass combustion carries higher cancer potential, study finds

A new study from the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), presents an alternative method for assessing the cancer potency of air pollution, focusing on mixtures of organic pollutants in particles. The findings are published in the journal Environment International.

By measuring the activation of DNA damage signaling in cells exposed to air samples, the researchers applied two modeling approaches to estimate their carcinogenic potential. The results showed that samples from areas mainly affected by particles from biomass combustion had higher cancer potential than samples from more urban environments.

The research contributes to improved risk assessment by shifting from analyzing individual pollutants to whole mixtures, which can help establish safe exposure limits.

Kristian Dreij, Associate Professor at IMM, explains, “We have previously shown that activation of DNA damage signaling is a sensitive in vitro marker that can be used to quantify the cancer potency of air pollution and other complex mixtures.

“In this study, we were able to apply the method to collected air samples from Sweden, Brazil, and Japan, representing different types of emission sources. We are now also studying the genotoxic mechanisms to see if we can explain why some samples are more potent than others.”