Air pollution is closely associated with the development of respiratory illness. The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between long-term exposure to PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and SO2 pollution and the incidence of lung cancer in the squamous subtype in south-eastern Poland from the years 2004 to 2014. We collected data of 4237 patients with squamous cell lung cancer and the level of selected pollutants. To investigate the relationship between the level of concentrations of pollutants and the place of residence of patients with lung cancer in the squamous subtype, proprietary pollution maps were applied to the places of residence of patients. To analyze the data, the risk ratio was used as well as a number of statistical methods, i.e., the pollution model, inverse distance weighted interpolation, PCA, and ordered response model. Cancer in women and in men seems to depend in particular on the simultaneous inhalation of NO2 and PM10 (variable NO2PM10) and of NO2 and SO2 (variable NO2 SO2), respectively. Nitrogen dioxide exercises a synergistic leading effect, which once composed with the other elements it becomes more persistent in explaining higher odds in the appearance of cancers and could constitute the main cause of squamous cancer.
Keywords: air pollutants; econometrics; lung cancer; morbidity; principal components analysis; squamous cell carcinoma.