How climate change could affect cancer risk

Is climate change putting us at higher risk for cancer? Ohio State researchers are working to find the answers.

Climate change is already affecting people around the world in many ways. Wildfires, weather events, fossil fuel emissions and hotter temperatures will continue to affect public health. Among those effects may be the increase in some cancer rates, according to Lauren Koch, the Sustainability Program manager for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Marium Husain, MD, a medical oncologist who specializes in treating patients with soft tissue and bone sarcomas at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.

Though both were living in Ohio at the time, Koch and Husain first met in Texas while attending a health care sustainability conference in 2015.

“It’s ironic that two people working in Columbus met in Dallas,” Koch says. “We hit it off immediately because we had the same passion.”

Koch and Husain discuss climate change and cancer in full detail on our Cancer-Free World Podcast. Watch on the video player above, or listen via SoundCloud.

Koch and Husain agree that climate change could increase cancer risk for some people, but caution that research into the specifics is in the early stages. Wildfires — which have been increasing in number and intensity — and the continued release of carbon emissions could be among the environmental factors that might raise that risk.

“They break down into smaller particles, nanoparticles,” Koch says. “A lot of data shows that, when they are inhaled into the lungs, it causes problems down the road. It’s a recipe for disaster.”

The breakdown of the particles can combine with rising temperatures to create a compounded problem.

“When it gets really hot, those gases can become aerosolized more and become those really small gas particles that we’re talking about,” Husain says.

Air issues could also lead to more skin cancer diagnoses, according to Koch.

“As more of the sun’s ultraviolet light is trapped in the atmosphere, that could lead to more exposure to and higher rates of skin cancer,” she says.

Despite the daunting challenges presented by climate change, though, Koch and Husain remain optimistic that experts can rise to the occasion.

“I find hope in the people who are here, like Lauren, and the investment we’re making in these people,” Husain says.

Click here to learn more about skin cancer, including risks, symptoms and treatment options at The Ohio State University.