High Thyroid Cancer Incidence Rate in a Community near a Landfill: A Descriptive Epidemiological Assessment

Background: to investigate the high thyroid cancer incidence rate of Staten Island and to disentangle the effects of potential environmental exposure from a landfill from screening. Methods: age-adjusted thyroid cancer incidence rates obtained from the New York State Public Access Cancer Epidemiology Data for New York State (NYS) excluding New York City (NYC) and the five NYC boroughs, including Staten Island, were mapped over time (1995–2018), investigated per age group and by percentage of localized thyroid cancer. Changes in trends were assessed using joinpoint. Contaminants of concern on Staten Island were assessed for carcinogenic and endocrine disruptive properties. Results: a more pronounced thyroid cancer incidence rate increase, without a difference in age distribution and similar percentages of localized thyroid cancer, was found in Staten Island compared to its demographic equivalent (NYS excluding NYC). Multiple contaminants of concern with carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting properties (e.g., cadmium, lead) were identified in air, water and sediment samples. Conclusion: investigations into the effects of increased/sustained environmental exposures are needed in chronically exposed populations to identify potential mechanisms of action of certain pollutants.

Study on Long-Term Exposure to Carbon Emissions and Lung Cancer Incidence Rate in China

Background: This study has shown the incidence of lung cancer in association with exposure to air pollution. We investigated the relationship, focusing on long-term exposure to carbon emissions (CE) and lung cancer incidence rate (LIR) in China.Methods: We collected the incidence rate of lung cancer from 2013 to 2015, and the data of carbon emissions from 1997 to 2015. We modeled the panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2013 to 2015 and applied a spatial Durbin model (SDM) to explore the spatial effect of CE on the LIR. Pearson test to determine the long-term impact of CE on LIR.Findings: The results showed that the direct effect coefficient of CE and UR were 0.132 and 0.425, respectively, both significant at a 1% level, which showed that CE and UR had an obvious positive effect on LIR. The value of Moran’s I indicated that there was a positive spatial correlation between the LIR and CE in China from 2013 to 2015, while the indirect effect coefficient of all the variables was nonsignificant at a 10% level, which indicated that CE had not impact on the LIR of its surrounding areas. on the whole, the effect cofficient of CE is 0.005 ,which is significant at a 1% level, which points out that the average effect of a change in CE in a certain region on LIR in all regions. Therefore, the research results indicated that there were geographical differences in carbon emissions but there is no spatial spillover effects. In the time fixed effects, the coefficients of CE were positive at the 10% significance level, which pointed out that CE exposure had a long-term impact on LIR from 2013 to 2015. Besides, the Pearson test implied that CE in the period had the greatest impact on the LIR in 2015 in China, and the lag period was about 17 years.Interpretation: The impact of CE on LIR had geographical distribution differences and long-term effects in China. We recommend that adopting policies to reduce carbon emission will have a positive health impact.

Changes in cancer incidence and mortality in Australia over the period 1996–2015

Objective A previous Australian study compared the observed numbers of cancer cases and deaths in 2007 with the expected numbers based on 1987 rates. This study examines the impact of cancer rate changes over the 20-year period 1996–2015, for people aged under 75 years. Results The overall age-standardised cancer incidence rate increased from 350.7 in 1995 to 364.4 per 100,000 in 2015. Over the period 1996–2015, there were 29,226 (2.0%) more cases (males: 5940, 0.7%; females: 23,286, 3.7%) than expected numbers based on 1995 rates. Smaller numbers of cases were observed compared to those expected for cancers of the lung for males and colorectum, and cancers with unknown primary. Larger numbers of cases were observed compared to those expected for cancers of the prostate, thyroid and female breast. The overall age-standardised cancer mortality rate decreased from 125.6 in 1995 to 84.3 per 100,000 in 2015. During 1996 to 2015 there were 106,903 (− 20.6%) fewer cancer deaths (males: − 69,007, − 22.6%; females: − 37,896, − 17.9%) than expected based on the 1995 mortality rates. Smaller numbers of deaths were observed compared to those expected for cancers of the lung, colorectum and female breast, and more cancer deaths were observed for liver cancer.