[HN Gopher] Many lung cancers are now in nonsmokers
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Many lung cancers are now in nonsmokers
        
       Author : alexcos
       Score  : 62 points
       Date   : 2025-07-22 15:18 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | alexcos wrote:
       | Non-paywall: https://archive.ph/nsMoH
        
       | jmclnx wrote:
       | Not being a scientist of any kind, I fully believe it is fossil
       | fuel emissions, mainly from autos.
       | 
       | When I was very young, where I lived, a city of 100000, I would
       | say less than 50% of the people there drove plus most worked in
       | the city they lived in. Now, almost every household has at least
       | 2 autos and most drive at least 10+ (16km) miles to work.
       | 
       |  _But_ , I also wonder if this is tied to the general increase in
       | cancers for people under 50.
        
         | 0points wrote:
         | Modern cars should be equipped with a catalysator, making the
         | majority of pollution to be Co2, worsening the global warming.
         | 
         | To some extent heavy metals are being distributed in the air by
         | the wheels in heavily populated areas.
         | 
         | This can be greatly improved by limiting traffic in heavily
         | populated areas. Trump removed such a rule from New York City
         | recently for reasons I can not comprehend.
         | 
         | Many european cities have improved air quality successfully and
         | hence increased life expectancy by limiting car traffic.
         | 
         | The majority of air pollution of particles however, is caused
         | by the industry (the companies making those cars, among
         | others).
         | 
         | In fact, you are a worse polluter of the earth today if you buy
         | a new Tesla than if you kept driving your 1980s gasoline car
         | due to the amount of pollution created by producing a single
         | vehicle.
        
           | danielbln wrote:
           | Particulate matter is still a huge problem, mainly produced
           | by tires and break pads, but also road abrasion. In terms of
           | pure engine exhaust, catalysts don't do much here, you'd need
           | a particulate filter, which not all cars have. So, cars still
           | a problem wrt cancer, as particulate matter is carcinogenic.
        
         | codyb wrote:
         | I know no one's ever going to change their ways cause of the
         | increasingly evident ravages of climate change but I swear I
         | feel like throwing rocks at the big SUVs rolling by with
         | exactly one person in them during the heat domes here in NYC.
         | 
         | Just, so, gross.
         | 
         | And it truly is the _vast majority_ of cars going by with
         | exactly one person in them. So wasteful, so much pollution, so
         | hot... frustrating.
        
           | RajT88 wrote:
           | I get it. My wife drives a big SUV. She is a small lady, and
           | says the car let's her see the road better and overall feel
           | more safe.
           | 
           | Back when SUV's started to get popular, this was a trend they
           | noticed as well. Back then, it was met with a lot of guffaws
           | about yuppie housewives and all that. (This was before the
           | term Karen had been coined)
        
             | QuercusMax wrote:
             | But she's making everyone else _less_ safe by driving in
             | her tank-mobile. Those are much more deadly to pedestrians,
             | cyclists, and those in smaller vehicles.
        
               | kccqzy wrote:
               | Some people are selfish. It's not illegal to be selfish.
        
               | potato3732842 wrote:
               | And for every comment screeching about pedestrians and
               | rollover safety there's another one screeching about
               | occupant safety. You can't really fault people for
               | picking the one that benefits them when confronted with
               | roughly equal screeching in both directions.
        
               | RajT88 wrote:
               | Exactly what I was getting at.
               | 
               | There are several ways to view the story.
               | 
               | Another commenter mentioned failing to design cars for
               | women (totally fair! Volvo famously had a botched attempt
               | at this)
               | 
               | What I have come to appreciate is how vulnerable women
               | feel in the world. It is hard to appreciate how that
               | plays into car choice if you are a man. Most men will
               | never be able to understand, imo.
        
               | asdff wrote:
               | Only 20 years ago used to be the "hairdresser car" meant
               | a tiny little sporty coupe or convertible like a miata. I
               | guess the marketing changed and cultivated a new
               | generation with a new mindset.
        
               | giraffe_lady wrote:
               | You absolutely can fault people for taking the choice
               | that makes them safer at the expense of others' safety. I
               | don't know how it became such a popular idea that a moral
               | imperative is only valid if it carries no personal cost.
               | 
               | It may be small in the grand scheme of things but it is
               | _wrong_ to do this, in exactly the same way, but a much
               | smaller degree, it is wrong to shove a child out of your
               | way to escape a burning building.
        
               | autoexec wrote:
               | It's also an arms race where everyone buys bigger cars to
               | see over all the other giant cars on the road. SUVs have
               | been shown many times to be less safe, even for their
               | drivers, but they give a _feeling_ of safety which
               | matters more than actual safety to buyers.
        
             | mschuster91 wrote:
             | > She is a small lady
             | 
             | So, yet another case of cars not being designed for women
             | (for those that don't get what I'm going on about - crash
             | test dummies are modeled after men, leading to
             | significantly worse crash outcomes for women [1])... it's
             | infuriating.
             | 
             | Even a "small" BMW i3, a car one might think to be suitable
             | for people of lower height - my wife tried out one at
             | carsharing, and even despite the seat being all up front,
             | she was barely able to drive the thing. The Mercedes
             | Sprinter we rented for our last moves? Once she understood
             | how the dimensions of that thing worked, absolutely easy
             | going.
             | 
             | [1] https://apnews.com/article/nhtsa-female-crash-dummies-
             | vehicl...
        
           | doubled112 wrote:
           | We really like our station wagon. Well, in principle at
           | least. We won't get into the details of keeping a 12 year old
           | German car going.
           | 
           | It's fuel efficient. It's not big. It's a decent people
           | mover. It has more cargo space than many SUVs that are
           | larger. Is low enough the roof racks are easily accessible.
           | Added a hitch, mostly for more cargo space.
           | 
           | I'm starting to wonder if I've done more "truck things" than
           | many of the people with trucks in the neighbourhood at this
           | point. If I ever need to haul more, I'll just rent a
           | truck/van for that moment in time. I'm not going to buy one
           | to drive to the office.
        
             | QuercusMax wrote:
             | When I had a Honda Fit I hauled a TON of cargo in it. A
             | friend borrowed it to pick up a full-sized pinball machine
             | from the next state over. I moved half of a 5-bedroom house
             | (except for big furniture) across town in my Fit.
             | 
             | You don't need a gigantic beast. A kei truck is more than
             | adequate for the vast majority of what people use pickup
             | trucks for.
        
               | asdff wrote:
               | Even my old Integra had a ton of trunk space when you
               | fold down the seats. It was almost like a small pickup
               | truck. I think a lot of people would get by with a sedan
               | but it seems like the seats no longer fold down on a lot
               | of smaller cars like that.
        
           | tbrownaw wrote:
           | > _big SUVs rolling by with exactly one person in them_
           | 
           | My mini-suv seems to be getting about double the gas milage
           | my old normal car did.
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | Now imagine the massive global polluting supply chain to put
           | that SUV together for a single person.
        
           | bamboozled wrote:
           | But they are so tough though...
        
         | 999900000999 wrote:
         | Ohh it's definitely cars.
         | 
         | In more ways than one. A lot of "poor" countries have life
         | expectancies comparable to the US. The big difference is they
         | don't have a culture of every single person needing to own a
         | car that spray carcinogens all over the place.
         | 
         | Obesity, which is its own massive wrecking ball, is also
         | significantly lower in these "poor" countries.
         | 
         | The arrogance of laughing at poor people riding bikes to work
         | when that would create a drastically healthier society.
         | 
         | Imagine if you had a 4km x 4km city with no consumer vehicles (
         | emergency and delivery exempt). Just walking paths and bike
         | lanes. The people living there would be drastically healthier.
         | 
         | Or hell, it might just be luck. A lot of smokers live until
         | there 80s enjoying a fat cigar once a day
        
         | mrob wrote:
         | I think people underestimate the impact of air pollution
         | because it's so easy to get desensitized to it. Try wearing a
         | respirator with good seal and filter in an urban area for 10
         | minutes or so. When you take it off you'll probably smell
         | vehicle exhaust you didn't notice before. Human sense of smell
         | tends to tune out constant low level background odors, but they
         | can still be a sign of something harmful.
        
           | Enginerrrd wrote:
           | For sure. I live in an area with superb air quality and going
           | down to LA and trying to take a run feels like smoking a
           | couple of cigarettes.
        
         | potato3732842 wrote:
         | I think you grossly underestimate the degree to which cars (and
         | industry that we had yet to kick out to China) were dirtier
         | decades ago than they are today.
         | 
         | We're talking like literal orders, plural, of magnitude when
         | comparing between the generally no cats automotive fleet of the
         | 70s with anything since the advent of both cats and
         | computerized fuel injection. Any old timer can tell you of the
         | smog that used to be frequent in urban areas. These days it's
         | mostly gone, at least when California or Canada (depending on
         | where you live) isn't on fire.
         | 
         | (INB4 people who are a net negative to public discourse
         | construe this comment as some sort of endorsement for everyone
         | driving everywhere all the time)
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | Cars were dirtier but I think there were fewer.
        
             | asdff wrote:
             | Just look at old photos of city smog in the 1960s. It is
             | night and day different compared to air today even with
             | larger populations in these same metros in some cases.
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | Pollution was way worse in the past. Old pictures of american
         | cities from 50 years ago look like Beijing. We hadn't yet
         | offshored heavy industry by that point and like you said, a
         | larger percent of the metro was living closer to it. And
         | whatever you saw outside was actually better than your air
         | quality inside where these pollutants would accumulate and mix
         | with Dad's cigarette smoke.
         | 
         | This was the air you were breathing back then (1, 2, 3).
         | 
         | 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
         | apps/imrs.php?src=https://...
         | 
         | 2.
         | https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/SKYSCRAP...
         | 
         | 3. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-
         | content/uploads/satev...
        
       | pfortuny wrote:
       | > The thinking used to be that smoking was "almost the only cause
       | of lung cancer," said Dr. Maria Teresa Landi, a senior
       | investigator at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of
       | the National Institutes of Health.
       | 
       | Well, that tells a lot: overfocusing on a single cause because it
       | is obvious and major. Well, let us hope the medical science
       | learns this lesson.
       | 
       | ETA: not that I blame them, it is a reasonable attitude but not
       | so good in science.
        
       | SoftTalker wrote:
       | Not jumping the paywall but I'd guess that because relatively
       | nobody smokes cigarettes anymore, cases of lung cancer with other
       | causes are now more of what doctors are seeing.
        
         | JKCalhoun wrote:
         | Did jump the paywall -- and FTA, regardless, the question
         | remains what causes these non-smoker lung cancers. Issues of
         | environment and heredity are discussed.
        
       | mgh2 wrote:
       | Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44466838
        
       | bell-cot wrote:
       | > Leah Phillips, of Pewee Valley, Ky. Doctors first mistakenly
       | diagnosed her with asthma and then anxiety. Later, they said she
       | had pneumonia. When an oncologist finally told her in 2019 that
       | she had metastatic lung cancer, he gave her six to 12 months to
       | live. "Go home and get your affairs in order," Ms. Phillips
       | remembered him saying. She was 43, and her children were 9, 13
       | and 14.
       | 
       | (One of many cases mentioned in the article.)
       | 
       | Before you head for the lab, to start researching "why" - maybe
       | you should tighten up the standards for diagnosis and testing?
       | That could enormously improve the qualities & quantities of life
       | for a huge number of patients.
        
       | Apreche wrote:
       | It happens more in women, especially in countries with
       | traditional gender roles. They are doing more cooking in the
       | kitchen where there is fire.
        
         | drdrey wrote:
         | not in the US: https://www.cdc.gov/united-states-cancer-
         | statistics/publicat...
        
           | cogman10 wrote:
           | The US fairly typically has electric stoves. Natural gas
           | stoves are going to be the second most common form of
           | cooking.
           | 
           | In the countries the OP is talking about, people cook over
           | literal fires and fire pits (sometimes enclosed). Even when
           | that happens in the US, unless you are talking about camping,
           | you are likely talking about something like a well vented
           | wood stove or wood stove oven like my grandma had.
           | 
           | An example of what I'm talking about:
           | https://unfccc.int/climate-action/momentum-for-
           | change/financ...
           | 
           | And here's what wood fired stoves look like in the US even
           | 100 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XcuznPQjLs
        
       | iancmceachern wrote:
       | Its pollution, I door and outdoor, chemical and combustion.
        
       | nancyminusone wrote:
       | Every time you look up something related to Radon, it's always
       | cited as "the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking"
       | 
       | I wonder if that's really true.
       | 
       | Radon is a big deal where I live. Most homes have a radon
       | mitigation system which is a 20-watt fan that goes over your sump
       | pump hole, and runs continuously to a vent on the roof.
        
         | abakker wrote:
         | I bought an Airthings radon monitor because of that stat, and
         | one thing that I have learned is that those mitigation systems
         | do not necessarily work. I have a system that works, but
         | initially, even though my house had a system, it did not
         | reliably keep the radon levels below the federal action level.
         | 
         | Barometric pressure, temperature, and HVAC all seem to have
         | some bearing - tightening the house for air leaks actually did
         | a lot of good in keeping levels low. Also, sump pump failures
         | or ground water levels can "push" radon into the house. I dug a
         | deeper sump pit and also put a secondary radon fan to pull air
         | out of my sub-foundation drain pipes to ensure the air below
         | the house is cycled.
         | 
         | Still, in Boulder County, my house will fail its radon test
         | after a 2 hour power outage.
         | 
         | I am an evangelist for continuous radon monitoring, alerts and
         | tests.
        
           | nancyminusone wrote:
           | I bought one of those because I have a couple radium clocks
           | and a nice sample of uraninite, which is a tiny collection
           | compared to the real enthusiasts but probably more
           | radioactive stuff than the average person has. Radon is in
           | the decay chain.
           | 
           | I've never seen above 0.7pC/L which is pretty good, although
           | I don't know what proportion of the activity that is there is
           | natural, or how much more it would be without the fan. I'm
           | not sure what the natural radon levels even are in my area, I
           | think the radon fan is just part of code here.
        
           | colordrops wrote:
           | My house is a raised foundation and they covered all the
           | ground underneath with plastic and put perforated pipes
           | underneath that pull the air out. Radon went down 10x. The
           | company has a 5 year guarantee.
        
           | simonsarris wrote:
           | > tightening the house for air leaks actually did a lot of
           | good in keeping levels low
           | 
           | Wait, really? Intuitively I would expect the opposite, that a
           | draftier house is better for radon levels indoors
        
             | NegativeLatency wrote:
             | There's probably a tipping point between the stack effect
             | (hot air rising and pulling on the radon) and drafts
             | bringing in fresh air diluting the radon.
        
         | colordrops wrote:
         | I bought a house in the hills of Los Angeles and we tested for
         | radon. Turned out it was very high, and LA is one of the few
         | places in California that has high radon. We got it mitigated,
         | and it wasn't that expensive. I talked to neighbors and real
         | estate agents, and no one wanted to know anything about it. I
         | was shocked. Everyone is pulling the wool over their own eyes
         | here.
        
           | Spooky23 wrote:
           | It's knowledge that can only hurt you if you're selling
           | houses. Just like lead paint - it's smart to be dumb.
        
             | thfuran wrote:
             | If ignorance gives you cancer while you live there,
             | maintaining it in the hopes of avoiding disclose
             | requirements in the future is both dumb and evil.
        
           | severino wrote:
           | > We got it mitigated, and it wasn't that expensive
           | 
           | What's the process, usually, adding some special ventilation
           | system to the house?
        
             | Marsymars wrote:
             | I'm actually scheduled for an install next Monday. Mine has
             | two components:
             | 
             | 1. The ventilation isn't really "in the house" - the fan
             | pulls from below the slab (and exhausts outside) to prevent
             | radon seeping through. 2. Based on the best guess about my
             | home age/area and radon patterns in my house, the slab was
             | probably poured around the furnace, so the mitigation will
             | include disassembling/reassembling my furnace to seal
             | underneath.
        
             | irrational wrote:
             | Drill a 6" hole through the concrete foundation and dig out
             | about 15-20 gallons worth of material. Install a 3-4" PVC
             | pipe into the hole (the end of the pipe should be a few
             | inches below the bottom of the foundation) and seal the
             | hole up with hydraulic cement. Continue the PVC pipe up out
             | out of the house. There are lots of rules around distance
             | of the outlet from windows and doors and how high above
             | roof line. Inline install a radon fan. How big a fan you
             | need depends on many factors like soil type, home
             | dimensions, etc. The fan runs 24/7 creating a vacuum under
             | the house.
        
           | asdff wrote:
           | Do you have a source for the high radon in LA? According to
           | this county source it is pretty low in LA county but much
           | more pronounced in Ventura county (1% homes with high levels
           | vs 14%). I imagine there is some potential for accumulation
           | effects but this is probably much worse in markets where the
           | homes actually have basements.
           | 
           | http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/safety/radon.htm
        
       | phkahler wrote:
       | Are lung cancer rates up? Obviously eliminating or reducing the
       | primary cause will lead to larger percentages of the other causes
       | among cases.
        
         | dlachausse wrote:
         | On the surface, the data from the American Lung Association
         | appears to support that hypothesis...
         | 
         | https://www.lung.org/research/trends-in-lung-disease/lung-ca...
        
           | bamboozled wrote:
           | The graph seems to shoe me it's peaked and is back on the way
           | down ?
        
         | dinfinity wrote:
         | Yes, also, the base rate of smoking in different groups is
         | important to take into consideration to prevent the base rate
         | fallacy.
         | 
         | Very few Chinese American women smoke (~2%), so if smokers and
         | non-smokers have the same chance of getting lung cancer _not
         | caused by smoking_ , then the number of non-smokers with lung
         | cancer will be a larger proportion.
         | 
         | If 100% of some group would be non-smokers, then obviously 100%
         | of lung cancer cases in that group will be in non-smokers.
         | 
         | It's similar to misinterpreting the fact that most people that
         | were hospitalized from Covid-19 were vaccinated.
        
         | cbsmith wrote:
         | Yeah, this title for the article is really terrible. The "why"
         | that scientists are investigating is not why many lung cancers
         | aren't in nonsmokers. The "why" they are investigating is "why
         | are these non smokers getting cancer?". Once smoking stops
         | being such a dominant cause, you put more energy into the other
         | cases.
        
           | irrational wrote:
           | It would be radon, wouldn't it?
        
         | calf wrote:
         | Except reducing the first cause does nothing about whether air
         | pollution is a nontrivial factor. And nonsmoker cancers are a
         | nontrivial proportion since they account for 10-25 percent of
         | lung cancer worldwide, please just read the article.
         | 
         | Besides the base rate fallacy there is the fallacy of assuming
         | only the biggest factor is what matters, when other factors are
         | nontrivial weights already. Another fallacy is the fallacy of
         | relativizing a problem framing by insisting on comparison with
         | an obsolete problem --campaigns against smoking have done a
         | lot, so why are we still comparing today's problems against the
         | problems of the 20th century. It smacks of "well, things were
         | even worse back then", which surely the base rate fallacy is
         | not trying to suggest.
        
       | hansonkd wrote:
       | I used to live by a busy street in a semi-dense part of town.
       | Cars would be going around 45mph.
       | 
       | When I moved from that apartment after 4 years. I was shocked by
       | the amount of black dust covering everything. from the walls to
       | the shelves and floors. I think it was all tire pollution so
       | switching to 100% electric won't mitigate.
       | 
       | It was pretty shocking and I wondered how much i increased my
       | risk for lung cancer or other cancers.
        
         | tmountain wrote:
         | I was just talking to my wife about playgrounds using shredded
         | tires as the "mulch". I don't know where the rubber comes from,
         | if and how it is cleaned, or what particulate material it
         | carries, but it seems dubious at best.
        
           | nartho wrote:
           | Those are known to be particularly awful and dangerous,
           | particularly on hot days, and have been banned in a lot of
           | places.
        
           | nancyminusone wrote:
           | My (wealthy) high school had a "turf" field which uses little
           | rubber pellets as the "dirt". Those were probably shredded
           | tires too. During football season you would see them tracked
           | around the school, and if you were a football player or in
           | the band they would show up at your house.
           | 
           | also, they would periodocially dump "more dirt" onto the
           | field, once every year or so. Not sure if they vacuumed the
           | old stuff up or just dumped more on top, but sometimes you
           | would go out there and there would be a huge pile of rubber
           | in the middle, which I guess got spread out later
        
           | awakeasleep wrote:
           | 6PPD (N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N'-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine)
           | *Purpose: Antioxidant to prevent rubber cracking. *Danger:
           | When it reacts with ozone and air, it forms 6PPD-quinone, a
           | toxic compound shown to kill salmon and other aquatic life at
           | trace levels. *Status: Under increasing regulatory scrutiny
           | (e.g., Washington State has started restricting it).
           | 
           | [?]
           | 
           | 2. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) *Purpose:
           | Byproducts from extender oils and carbon black. *Danger:
           | Known carcinogens, mutagens, and endocrine disruptors.
           | Persist in the environment and can leach from tire wear
           | particles. *Status: Regulated in the EU; linked to air and
           | soil contamination.
           | 
           | [?]
           | 
           | 3. Benzothiazoles (e.g., 2-mercaptobenzothiazole) *Purpose:
           | Vulcanization accelerators. *Danger: Toxic to aquatic
           | organisms, possibly carcinogenic, and bioaccumulative.
           | *Status: Found in tire leachate and considered a contaminant
           | of emerging concern.
           | 
           | [?]
           | 
           | Nothing definitive about harm to human welfare yet, as far as
           | I know.
        
             | Spooky23 wrote:
             | They contain heavy metals like lead and PFAs. They also
             | break down over time and leach microplastic into the wider
             | environment.
        
           | mschuster91 wrote:
           | It's banned for new installs in Europe and existing
           | installations have to be replaced by 2031 [1] - although
           | primarily to get rid of a microplastics emission source.
           | Additionally, shredded tire rubber as infill is investigated
           | for being contaminated with PAH (polycyclic aromatic
           | hydrocarbons) [2].
           | 
           | [1] https://www.hna.de/lokales/kreis-kassel/kreis-kassel-eu-
           | verb...
           | 
           | [2] https://playground-
           | landscape.com/de/article/2033-gesundheits...
        
             | autoexec wrote:
             | > primarily to get rid of a microplastics emission source
             | 
             | I wouldn't be surprised to learn that inhaled microplastics
             | were causing an increase in lung cancers. We know they end
             | up deep in the lungs.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | Personally, I more suspect vehicles. We got a grip on
               | particulate emissions from diesel engines, but brakes and
               | tires still emit fine dust particles. The average one way
               | commute is 30 minutes in the US, so you're breathing in
               | pretty filthy air for an hour a day...
        
               | autoexec wrote:
               | Hopefully not. I keep the windows up and recycle the air
               | (which should be filtered on its way in anyway). I live a
               | bit closer to road than I'd like considering the traffic
               | levels though so even keeping windows open in the house
               | could be an issue.
        
         | apt-apt-apt-apt wrote:
         | Man, similar story. Spent a few months next to a mall parking
         | lot with rough asphalt. Apparently the neighborhood had a car
         | drifting crowd, and they'd regularly do so, which made me
         | irrationally angry.
         | 
         | I only realized later that all the black dust everywhere must
         | have been tire particles, when I realized other places DON'T
         | have the black dust. Given the toxicity of tire pollution, it
         | doesn't seem like my reaction was irrational after all. Sucks
         | for all the people that still live there, who may not even
         | realize what's going on.
        
         | AnonymousPlanet wrote:
         | This might actually be brake dust. In that case, the situation
         | most likely will be improved by electric cars because they use
         | their brakes far less often, decelerating with their motors.
        
           | dv_dt wrote:
           | And it could be both tire dust and or brake dust are
           | indicators of proximity to combustion engine exhaust. Any
           | individual or combination of those could be an increased
           | cancer risk. But only the dust is immediately visible and
           | leaves behind a tangible trace
        
           | voxic11 wrote:
           | Breaks are only part of the problem unfortunately.
           | 
           | > Resuspension of dust already on the road's surface is the
           | most significant contributor to non-exhaust PM by far,
           | however these particles are difficult to characterize and
           | manage because they could come from anywhere before landing
           | on the road. Brakes are the next most significant source, and
           | may also be particularly hazardous because of their small
           | size and high metal content. Tires contribute the least, but
           | they release large amounts of particles which act as
           | microplastics in ecosystems.
           | 
           | https://www.nrdc.org/bio/john-bailey/beyond-tailpipe
        
         | arevno wrote:
         | The lungs are exposed to air, but they're also exposed to a lot
         | of bloodborne compounds, since a full vascular cycle goes
         | through the pulmonary arteries.
         | 
         | The null hypothesis is "it's something in the air", but with
         | the increase in non-lung cancers in young people[1] noted over
         | the past decade, it's entirely possible it's something else,
         | and lung tissue is one of the susceptible ones to whatever it
         | is.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-
         | blog/2025...
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Related from last year, similar asian women angle for whatever
       | reason:
       | 
       |  _Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never
       | smoking_
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40161811
        
         | John23832 wrote:
         | Wok cooking is done at really high temp, which releases gases
         | that are not present in moderate/low temp cooking. Woks trends
         | asian, cooking trends towards women.
        
           | blindriver wrote:
           | I don't think you know young Asian American women if you
           | think they are cooking with woks or even cooking in general.
        
           | resoluteteeth wrote:
           | I don't think most people are actually doing really high temp
           | wok cooking at home regardless of ethnic background. My
           | impression is that, while woks are more common for home
           | cooking in china (not chinese americans, mind you), even
           | there home cooking is usually not done at the high
           | temperatures that restaurants use.
        
             | mschuster91 wrote:
             | It's easy, incredibly easy, to overheat cookingware
             | unintentionally. Add oil to a pan/wok that's overheated and
             | it decomposes. Additionally, if the cookingware is coated
             | with Teflon, above 300 degC this degrades into toxic
             | compounds and can lead to "teflon flu" [1].
             | 
             | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever
        
               | jerlam wrote:
               | Asian-Americans specifically have higher levels of PTFE
               | in their blood too:
               | 
               | https://pfasproject.com/2023/08/25/asian-americans-have-
               | much...
        
       | hulitu wrote:
       | > Many Lung Cancers Are Now in Nonsmokers. Scientists Want to
       | Know Why
       | 
       | Because hypocrisy does not live long. They blamed cigarettes for
       | lung cancer, ignoring all other causes. "Oh, you have cancer but
       | didn't smoke ? You surely were inhaling cigarettes smoke from
       | somebody else.". We can polute further with no repercursions.
        
         | polotics wrote:
         | smokers thirds FYI: - one third dies a direct smoking related
         | death - one third suffers from smoking related diseases then
         | dies - one third dies of something else, younger than the other
         | two
        
       | m2f2 wrote:
       | Non-paywall: https://archive.ph/nsMoH
       | 
       | Site is flagged as it hosts pedop. material.
        
       | irrational wrote:
       | The second leading cause of lung cancer is radon. My high
       | schooler came home and said her science teacher said everyone
       | should do a radon test. I scoffed, but humored her by getting a
       | kit from Home Depot and sending it away to a lab. The results
       | came back very high. So I purchased an electronic radon monitor
       | and it showed almost the exact same results. Well, crap. I
       | installed a radon mitigation system and now the numbers are
       | almost nil.
        
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