POSSIBLE ROLE OF INDOOR ENVIRONMENT AND COAL COMBUSTION EMISSION IN LUNG CARCINOGENESIS IN FUYUAN COUNTY, CHINA

Fuyuan Country, in Yunnan Province, China has an extremely high lung c ancer mortality both in males and non-smoking females. Out of 5768 dea ths, 588 patients died of malignant diseases. Lung cancer was the numb er one cause of death among malignant diseases both in males and femal es. The rate of lung cancer death to the whole of malignant diseases w as 56.2% for males and 55.0% for females. Indoor soot and combustion e mission derived from smoky coal produced in northern Fuyuan exhibited high mutagenic activities against Salmonella typhimurium TA98 strain i n Ames test. Resected lung tissues derived from the patients with lung cancer in Fuyuan contained significantly higher concentrations of ben zo(a)pyrene than those in Japan, both in males and females (i.e., 608. 7 +/- 477.1 pg/dry weight for samples of the patients in Fuyuan, 180.1 +/- 104.5 for Japanese non-smokers, and 207.5 +/- 98.8 for Japanese h eavy smokers, respectively). These results suggest that mutagenic chem icals contained in coal as well as indoor environment may have a great influence on lung carcinogenesis in Fuyuan, Yunnan Province, China.