Study Links Cancer in Women to Dirty Air : Health: Those living in areas with significant dust pollution face a 37% higher risk of developing the disease than those living in a purer environment.

Women living in areas with high concentrations of suspended dust in the air face a 37% higher risk of developing cancer than women in less polluted areas, Loma Linda University researchers report.

Most of the women who developed cancer during a 10-year epidemiological study lived in the Los Angeles region, which exceeds federal standards for very small dust particles, primarily resulting from cars and industry. But others were exposed to high dust levels from agricultural activity or in wind-whipped desert areas.

The scientists did not find a corresponding increased risk in men. They said they could not explain the disparity.

The Loma Linda study of 6,000 Seventh-day Adventists throughout the state also raised the possibility that suspended dust may place both sexes at greater risk for respiratory cancers, bronchitis, asthma and other airway disorders. In addition to dust, the researchers suggested that ozone, a major component of urban smog, could contribute to cancer of the respiratory tract.

W. Lawrence Beeson, data manager for the study, said the number of cases was too small to definitively conclude that those conditions were caused by pollution.

Still, said another of the researchers, Floyd F. Petersen: “If you have a history of airway obstructive disease in your family, if you suffer from asthma, I would hate to tell you to move, but I would certainly think about it.”

Petersen cautioned that smoking poses a much higher risk than breathing polluted air, at least at the levels in the study.

“It’s a fairly loud signal, there’s no doubt about it,” said John Holmes, research director of the California Air Resources Board, which financed the study. The findings linking dust pollution to cancer in women “confirm a lot of suspicions.”

UCLA epidemiologist Roger W. Detels, who has linked air pollution to long-term lung damage, said he has questions about the research, which was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. “It’s very unlikely that all malignancies are related to air pollution,” he said. “It would have been interesting to see if there were any patterns in the types of malignancies that were occurring.”

The study is part of an $8-million investigation of the health of 34,000 Adventists to determine why they are in better shape than the general population. Adventists are prohibited by their religion from smoking or drinking alcohol.

Researchers David E. Abbey, Paul K. Mills, Petersen and Beeson said they were able to filter out other variables such as dietary habits, exposure to secondhand smoke at work, smoking history and socioeconomic status. All the study participants were non-Latino whites.

Almost two-thirds of those tracked in the study lived in the Los Angeles region. Others lived in the San Diego or San Francisco regions or in rural areas of California.

In 1976, 1977 and 1986, participants filled out detailed questionnaires. The researchers checked air pollution levels from nearby monitors.

During the study period, 290 participants developed cancers. Of those, 175 were women.

The researchers found a clear correlation between the women’s cancer and exposure in a year to 1,000 hours of airborne dust at concentrations above 200 micrograms per cubic meter.

For every additional 1,000 hours above the dust threshold, women faced an additional 37% increase in cancer risk, Beeson and Petersen said.

“A 37% increase is a major, significant finding, we thought,” Beeson said. “The next step is to find out exactly what’s going on inside the body.”

Men in the study’s heaviest dust areas also developed more cancers than did men at sites with cleaner air, but “it didn’t reach statistical significance,” Beeson said. “The elevation wasn’t as marked as in women. We would hope other investigators will examine whether there is a sex-specific response.”