Every day, your body is exposed to a variety of chemicals from the foods you eat, the beverages you drink, everyday household products, and the air you breathe. While some of these chemicals are harmless, others can have toxic effects on your health. Using an air filter in your home purifies the air, preventing cancer and other chronic illnesses. In 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency released a landmark report estimating the concentrations of air pollutants across the United States. The report studied over 181 different air pollutants, 80 of which are thought to contribute to cancer formation in humans. For example, benzene is a toxin released from car exhaust that may lead to cancer. Approximately 30% of the cancers caused by air pollution are due to car exhaust; another 25% are due to local industrial activity. Los Angeles, New York City, and other urban areas have high levels of air pollution that may increase your cancer risk. Rural areas and places with low industrial manufacturing tend to have purer air.

How Does Air Pollution Affect Cancer Rates? Several types of air pollutants may increase your risk of cancer. One of the most dangerous risks is developing lung cancer, which kills over 158,000 Americans each year. A 2002 study found that long-term exposure to air pollution is just as harmful as living with a smoker and being exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke. Breathing polluted air may increase your lung cancer risk by 16% to 24%. electronic air cleaners for furnaceA more recent study, published in 2011, found that nonsmokers who live in areas with high air pollution are 20% more likely to die from lung cancer than those who live in areas with purer air.clean room hvac control Air pollution is also linked to breast cancer. do air purifiers reduce secondhand smoke

A 2010 study from researchers at McGill University found that traffic-related air pollution may cause post-menopausal breast cancer. Women who live in areas with high pollution from traffic are twice as likely to develop breast cancer as those who live in areas with clean air. One particular air pollutant, benzene, is well-known as a carcinogen. Benzene is released into the air from gasoline, vehicle exhaust fumes, factory emissions, and waste water from certain industrial activities. People who live near heavy traffic, industrial factories, and gas stations tend to breathe in more benzene from the air. Benzene exposure increases your risk of acute myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, multiple myeloma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to the American Cancer Society. What Can I Do to Protect Myself from Air Pollution and Cancer? The best way to prevent getting cancer from air pollutants is to reduce your exposure to the carcinogens. If you live in a neighborhood with heavy traffic, large factories that release smoke or gases, coal power plants, or other sources of pollution, consider moving to an area with cleaner air.

If a move is not feasible, limit your time outdoors in areas with high air pollution. Another solution to limit your exposure to pollutants is to invest in an air purifier. Some room air purifiers are designed to clean the air in a relatively small space, while home purifiers filter the air throughout your home. Look for a purifer with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. All HEPA filters must satisfy certain requirements set forth by the U.S. Department of Energy. These high-quality filters must remove 99.97% of particles larger than 0.3 micrometers in size. The cost of air filters varies by the type you get. In general, a high-quality HEPA filter for a single room will cost between $50 and $150. A purifier designed to clean the air in your entire house may cost from $400 to $1,500 or more. Home purifiers often connect to your central air conditioning system to push purified air throughout your home. In addition to filtering your air of cancer-causing agents, an air purifier may improve your respiratory function.

People with allergies or asthma often report fewer symptoms when using an air purification system. Read Next: Air Pollution's Harmful Effects on the ElderlyExposure to air pollution has long been associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, and a new study suggests it might also be tied to a faster death from the disease. Researchers examined cancer registry data on more than 350,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer in California and found patients who lived in communities with higher than average levels of air pollution typically died sooner than their peers who lived in places with cleaner air. Patients with lung cancer may be a new subgroup of people susceptible to the health impacts of air pollution, since exposures after diagnosis may impact how long they live, said lead study author Sandrah Eckel, a researcher at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Worldwide, lung malignancies kill about 1.6 million people a year, causing nearly one in five cancer deaths, Eckel and colleagues note in the journal Thorax.

London to offer alerts on air quality at bus stops Georgia man to complete half Ironman as he battles incurable lung cancer Studies suggest drugs for advanced lung, skin cancers extend patients' lives To assess how air pollution may contribute to these deaths, researchers examined concentrations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide and so-called particulate matter. Ozone is an unstable form of oxygen produced when various types of traffic and industrial pollution react with sunlight. Nitrogen dioxide is a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion that can contribute to smog. And so-called particulate matter is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets that can include dust, dirt, soot and smoke. All of these pollutants have been found to damage the lungs. Almost half the patients in the current study lived at least 1,500 meters (almost one mile) away from a major interstate highway, while fewer than 10 percent lived with 300 meters (about one-fifth of a mile) of one.

Air pollution is usually worse closer to these highways. Researchers tracked health outcomes for patients diagnosed with lung cancer from 1988 to 2009 based on the level of air pollution near their homes. Patients were 69 years old on average at the time of diagnosis. More than half were diagnosed at an advanced stage when tumors had spread. Overall, the average survival time was about 3.6 years for people diagnosed with early stage disease and about four months for those with advanced tumors that had spread beyond the lungs. Air pollution appeared to have the greatest effect on survival for people diagnosed with early-stage adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer and the form that often afflicts non-smokers. In particular, patients diagnosed with early-stage disease had average survival times of about 2.4 years with high exposure to fine particulate matter, compared with 5.7 years with low exposure, the researchers report. For these early-stage patients, the risk of death from any cause during the study period was 30 percent greater with exposure to nitrogen dioxide, 26 percent higher with exposure to large particulate matter and 38 percent bigger with fine particulate matter, the study found.

One limitation of the study is that researchers focused on pollution near residential addresses, which doesn't account for how much time patients spent outdoors breathing this air, the authors note. Even so, the findings add to a small but growing body of evidence linking pollution to worse outcomes after a lung cancer diagnosis, Dr. Jaime Hart, a researcher at Brigham and Women's and Harvard Medical School in Boston, noted in an accompanying editorial. "Studies have shown that pollution increases inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which have been linked to increased mortality," Hart said by email. "Those studies weren't done in lung cancer patients, but it is reasonable to think that similar things may be occurring." Taken together, this emerging research suggests that patients with lung cancer should consider reducing pollution exposure along with other lifestyle changes aimed at boosting longevity such as smoking cessation or dietary changes, Hart said. "There are a number of common-sense precautions that anyone can take to reduce their exposures to air pollution, including monitoring daily air pollution alerts and reducing outdoor activities - especially outdoor exercise - during high pollution periods, using air filtration systems while indoors, and using the recirculate setting of your car ventilation system while traveling in heavy traffic," Eckel noted.