14 DAY TRIAL // Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a new report classifying air pollution as a leading cause of cancer. Just in case anyone was doubting this report, it turns out WHO sure knew what it was saying. And a girl in China who has been diagnosed with lung cancer stands as proof.
Information shared with the public says that the girl is merely 8 years old. She isn't a smoker, but she has somehow come to develop lung cancer.
According to doctors at the Jiangsu Tumor Hospital in Nanjing, where she is currently being treated, all evidence points to the fact that the child, who has thus far remained unnamed, got said medical condition after breathing in a tad too much of the contaminated air now hovering over streets in China.
Not to beat about the bush, it appears that air pollution is what caused her disease.
Doctors detail that, as far as they can tell, the girl developed cancer after her lungs became exposed to noteworthy amounts of fine particulate matter, otherwise known as PM 2.5.
They say that, once inside her lungs, the particulate matter caused tissue inflammation and that, in time, this inflammation caused the onset of cancer.
Think Progress tells us that the 8-year-old lives in China's Jiangsu province. Her home is located fairly close to several factories of electronic equipment, chemicals and textiles, which means that the girl has spent the first few years of her life in one of the country's most polluted areas. .
According to the same source, she is the youngest person in China to have ever been diagnosed with lung cancer.
To put things into perspective, it must be said that, as shown in reports pieced together by the American Cancer Society, the average age for the onset of this diseases is somewhere around 70.
As reported on several occasions, China's ongoing air pollution crisis is so bad that some are even talking about a so-called airpocalypse. Here's hoping things will soon take a turn for the better.