Cross-sectional Assay on the Mutagenicities of Air-suspended Particulate Distributed Geographically in Taiwan by the Levels of Female Lung Cancer Mortality

• Main Authors: Jang, Men-Hwang, 章門煌
• Other Authors: Hong Chin-Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1997
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/98219146025873436844

碩士 === 台北醫學院 === 醫學研究所 === 85 === Lung cancer has become prevalent since early 1950s. The standardized mortalities of lung cancer have been obviously increased in Taiwan year by year, came up to 8 times level from 1954 to 1990 in Taiwan with sex ratio of male to female around 2.0 and with a rather obvious area -specific distribu-tion. Some carcinogenic and mutagenic substances of air-suspended particulates were probably the important pathogenic risk factor of lung cancer,this may also be considered to being related with urbanization and industrialization. However the health hazard effects of air pollution are principally detected out from respiratory diseases. There are more and more evidences showed the close relationship between high air pollution and lung cancer incidence. Owing to the multiple causations of lung cancer, we first try to assess rather directly the genotoxic responses of air suspended particulate samples.The sampling areas of urban and rural townships around the Formosa island were selected according to the high,middle and low levels of standardized mortality rates of female lung cancer in Taiwan from 1972 to 1983 for mostly preclude the confounding effect of personally smoking. A routine air sampling procedure by 24 hrs suction with the high volume airsampler(Model GMWL-2000) was carried out once a time at each selected township from Jan. to April, 1990. The glass fiber filters were extracted by Hoffman's method. Then the mutageni-cities of extracted tars were assayed by the Ames Salmonella/Mammalian Microsome Mutagenicity Test using Samonella typhimurium TA98 with S9 mix addition. We also checked and correlated the corresponding pollution data with the meteorological conditions on precipitation and win speed. Meanwhile, those female lung cancer mortality rates of 1994-1995 were used as the probable outcome indices. The average weights of particulate matters were increased with the ascend-ing order of mortality levels of lung cancer, and the mutagenicities come out rather proportional to the levels of pollution when we calcu-lated the total mutagenicity by mutation responses timing together with the sample particu-late weight. There were found a good correlation between the total mutageni-city and the levels of female lung cancer mortality ( p<0.025). We also found that these total mutagenicities were rather area-specifically distributed ( p = 0.033). Our cross-sectional analysis on the total mutagenicity indicates that there is a significant relationship between the incidence of lung cancer and thelevel of air pollution.We need a more long-term follow-up study to confirm the exact causal relationship between air pollution and lung cancer.