Cooking Fumes Raise Lung Cancer Risk in Never Smokers

TOPLINE:

A systematic review found that higher lifetime exposure to cooking oil fumes was associated with an increased risk for lung cancer in never-smoking women in high-income countries.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a systematic review to study the relationship between exposure to cooking fumes, a type of household air pollution, and lung cancer in never smokers in high-income countries.
• The analysis included three case-control studies comprising 3734 participants, with all studies focusing on Chinese women using traditional cooking methods.

TAKEAWAY:

• Higher cooking time-years (> 160) were associated with an increased risk for lung cancer (odds ratio [OR], 3.17; 95% CI, 1.34-7.68).
• Compared with cooking dish-years ≤ 50, cooking dish-years > 200 conferred an OR of 8.09 (95% CI, 2.57-25.45).
• Deep frying was associated with the highest risk (per 10 dish-years), with an OR of 2.56 (95% CI, 1.31-5.00), followed by pan frying (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.27-1.69) and stir frying (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07-1.18).
• Cooking three meals per day was associated with a threefold higher risk for lung cancer than cooking one meal per day (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.6-6.2).
• Ventilation hoods showed a protective effect against lung cancer in never smokers (adjusted OR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.32-0.76).

IN PRACTICE:

“Exposure to cooking fumes is linked to lung cancer due to the levels of carcinogens that can be produced during the heating of oils to high temperatures. VOCs [volatile organic compounds] which are generated by cooking oils have been shown to be mutagenic, containing PACs [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons], aldehydes, carbonyl compounds and other mutagens,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Bría Joyce McAllister, University of Leicester College of Life Sciences, Leicester, England. It was published online on June 20, 2025, in BMJ Open.

LIMITATIONS:

All three studies relied on questionnaires and participant recollection rather than active monitoring of household air pollutant concentrations while cooking. The questionnaires used were not included in the publications, potentially limiting replication. Additionally, none of the studies accounted for the effects of outdoor air pollution, which is known to affect health and indoor air quality. The research was limited to Chinese women in Taiwan and Hong Kong using traditional cooking methods, raising questions about applicability to other ethnic groups and high-income countries.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was supported by a grant from the Wellcome Trust. The National Institute for Health and Care Research Leicester Biomedical Research Centre provided additional support. The authors declared having no relevant conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.