UT Dallas researchers map how satellite-measured air pollution and cancer rates cluster across Texas counties

Texas counties with more air pollution, as measured from space, also tended to report more cancer, according to a study by researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas that the Richardson university highlighted Friday.

The team, from UT Dallas' School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, looked at all 254 Texas counties. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, a scientific journal, posted the paper online March 5.

How the study worked

Instead of relying on ground monitors, which are expensive and sparse in much of the state, the researchers used 2022 readings from a set of remote-sensing satellites. They tracked eight pollutants, among them methane, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, along with aerosols and two sizes of fine particulate matter.

They compared those readings with county cancer prevalence figures published by the CDC, then ran the data through a machine-learning model.

"Something new this study contributes is an examination of the entire state of Texas," said Fangchao Dong, a doctoral student in geospatial information sciences and a co-corresponding author.

What it found

Of the eight pollutants, sulfur dioxide was the strongest predictor of cancer prevalence. Dong said the state breaks into three broad pollution zones: the east has the poorest air, the west the cleanest, and central Texas falls between. Several pollutants ran higher in East Texas counties.

Cancer was not scattered randomly, either. Counties with high prevalence tended to sit next to other counties with high prevalence.

The limits

The authors stress that their results are not enough to show that breathing polluted air raises any one person's cancer risk. They also found no simple pattern in which every more-polluted place had more cancer, and they note that cancer has many causes besides pollution.

Muhammad Tauhidur Rahman, an associate professor and the study's other co-corresponding author, said the team controlled for socioeconomic and other factors, but the work focused on where cancer and pollution occur. Satellite measurements are also less precise than ground monitoring, Dong said, and more research is needed on both cost and accuracy.

Rahman said the approach could help officials see where medical facilities are located relative to need and decide where to focus. Doctoral student Hao Chen also worked on the study.

Sources

news.utdallas.edu