Long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter constituents and mortality from total and site-specific gastrointestinal cancer.

Background: Ambient fine particulate matter (PM) exposure has been associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal cancer mortality, but the attributable constituents remain unclear.

Objectives: To investigate the association of long-term exposure to PM constituents with total and site-specific gastrointestinal cancer mortality using a difference-in-differences approach in Jiangsu province, China during 2015-2020.

Methods: We split Jiangsu into 53 spatial units and computed their yearly death number of total gastrointestinal, esophagus, stomach, colorectum, liver, and pancreas cancer. Utilizing a high-quality grid dataset on PM constituents, we estimated 10-year population-weighted exposure to black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and chloride in each spatial unit. The effect of constituents on gastrointestinal cancer mortality was assessed by controlling time trends, spatial differences, gross domestic product (GDP), and seasonal temperatures.

Results: Overall, 524,019 gastrointestinal cancer deaths were ascertained in 84.77 million population. Each interquartile range increment of BC (0.46 μg/m), OC (4.56 μg/m), and nitrate (1.41 μg/m) was significantly associated with a 27%, 26%, and 34% increased risk of total gastrointestinal cancer mortality, respectively, and these associations remained significant in PM-adjusted models and constituent-residual models. We also identified robust associations of BC, OC, and nitrate exposures with site-specific gastrointestinal cancer mortality. The mortality risk generally displayed increased trends across the total exposure range and rose steeper at higher levels. We did not identify robust associations for sulfate, ammonium, or chlorine exposure. Higher mortality risk ascribed to constituent exposures was identified in total gastrointestinal and liver cancer among women, stomach cancer among men, and total gastrointestinal and stomach cancer among low-GDP regions.

Conclusions: This study offers consistent evidence that long-term exposure to PM-bound BC, OC, and nitrate is associated with total and site-specific gastrointestinal cancer mortality, indicating that these constituents need to be controlled to mitigate the adverse effect of PM on gastrointestinal cancer mortality.