Wildfires and Cancer Risk - Dr Matthew Schabath PhD Moffitt Cancer Center

As Florida faces one of its worst wildfire seasons in years, a new study released at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in San Diego, matches cancer rates in more than 90 thousand people over a decade to areas dealing with wildfire smoke. It finds the risk of certain cancers, including colorectal, more than doubled and risks of lung cancer nearly doubled. We speak with Matthew Schabath PhD, who leads the Cancer Epidemiology Program at Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center, on how the researchers came up with those findings and how to apply them in your life. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. There's a study
that's come out. First of all, of course, if you're
listening in Florida, where most of you are, we are
entering the worst of our wildfire season and that is
going to peak in April and May before our rainy
season kicks in in June. And there may be a

(00:21):
little bit of concern about that, about a risk you
may not have been thinking of previously. There's a new
study that came out, some new research that came out
at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
And we have doctor Matthew Shabbath, PhD. He is the
leader of the cancer Epidemiology program at Moffitt Cancer Center

(00:43):
and he's taking part in that particular meeting and he's
here to talk with us about it. Doctor Shabbath, welcome
to Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it all.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Right. Now, what is the concern here that there is
a potential link between wildfire smoke and inhaling wildfire smoke,
I presume, and of certain cancers.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, absolutely, this is a problem that is not new
to us in the field. That's certainly something that we
have been studying, meaning the scientific community has been studying
for decades. And this new data that's presented here at
the conference here in San Diego ACR just adds to

(01:27):
the growing scientific literature that shows that wildfires that are
associated with a variety of risks for different cancers. And
I think the evidence is overwhelming at this point. We've
seen it in studies throughout the US and Canada, throughout
the world that these things, these wildfires do indeed have

(01:49):
causal links with a variety of different cancers.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Now tell us about what they studied and how they
managed to identify this risk.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Sure, they used a study called the PLCO Cancer Screening
Trial Prostate long Correctal Varying Cancer. This is a very
large epidemiologic study that includes hundreds of thousands of people
studying them over years. And in this particular study, they
looked at almost one hundred thousand individuals in the PLC

(02:23):
of cohort and mapped wildfire data at the individual level
and mapped wildfires across this cohort of patients over time
and discovered and they used they use a variety of
different tools. They have a lot there's a lot of
publicly available data out there free data that US government, Canada,

(02:47):
et cetera puts out that you can actually track these
wildfires and more importantly, particular components of these wildfire something
called PM two point five, which is just a fancy
terms for studying very small particulates that are released during
wildflareers and in a nutshell, using this data set over

(03:09):
a long period of time of many many years has
found that individuals that were exposed to this particular matter
from wildfires are associated with increased risk for many cancers,
including long colorectal, breast bladder, and a variety of blood cancers.
What they did not see there was no association for

(03:31):
some cancers like ovarian and melanoma.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Now, if you hear about this and you're trying to
process this data, is this something I'm thinking there would
be definitely a risk for somebody who fights fires for
a living, somebody with the Forest Service, let's say that
they might want to keep in mind. But for those
of us who just encounter wildfire smoke occasionally, is this

(03:57):
something we need to take any special action about. Should
we be monitoring the listening to the your Quality Index?
Should we be wearing masks or staying indoors. What what
do people of average risk need to be doing with
this information?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Right, Yeah, that's a great question. Is you know, we
have all this wonderful important data. How do we actualize this?
How do we translate this to public health policy or
public health action. Certainly, you know, much like any common
sense things. You know, if you go out during the day,
you wear sunblocks, you go out during the day and
it happens to be wildfires, perhaps stay away from. Certainly

(04:38):
there are primary prevention measures, like we all very familiar
with masks over the last several years. There are masks
that can help mitigate those risks. I think a lot
of the common sense things, you know, if there is
these exposures, be your best to avoid. I'm certainly staying inside,
and you know, if you're staying inside, making making sure

(05:00):
that you know you're you've got good ventilation, that your
A C handlers are working well, make sure your your doors,
your windows aren't leaking this particulate matter. And so, you know,
it's a lot of common sense thing. We don't have
great policy and on how to actualize this stuff, but
you know, this is really just important public health data

(05:22):
to be aware of when these wildfires happened, and they
do happen, and they will continuously happen. That we have
to be mindful about these exposures, much like whether it's
a sun exposure or any other sort of uh, you know,
potential toxin or carcinogen that's out there is we need
to be you know, use cautionary, common sense approaches to

(05:45):
mitigate those risks.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
And just a couple of hours before we set up
this interview to speak with you, we were just hearing
from the head of the Florida Forest Service and they're
saying that this could be one of the worst wildfire
risk years for the state of Florida in a decade
or two, so it might come into play more in
this year than in some previous years. All Right, doctor

(06:08):
Matthew Shabbeth, a PhD. He is with the leader of
the cancer epidemiology program at Moffitt Cancer Center. And I
think you were about to say something, so I'm going
to pause for just a moment if you would like
to finish up.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I guess I was just putting out to my foe
and hopefully we don't have to face this this year.
I know we're dealing with the drought but if we
are facing a wildfires, we're in it together and we're
going to have to you know, protect our not only
our property, but protect ourselves.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Indeed, thank you very much, and we appreciate your time,
and thank you for joining us on beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Thanks for having me, appreciate it.