Your Zip Code Might Be a Lung Cancer Risk Factor

Every neighborhood has its own environmental fingerprint. Unique combinations of air, soil, and housing that shape exposure over a lifetime. Here are the biggest ways your surroundings can quietly raise your lung-cancer risk.

1. Air Pollution and Fine Particles (PM2.5)

The invisible dust you can’t see may be the most dangerous of all. Fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, comes from car exhaust, factories, and even wildfire smoke.² These microscopic particles are smaller than a single red blood cell and can travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream.²

Over time, PM2.5 causes chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, damaging cells and creating a fertile ground for cancer.² Researchers recently discovered that pollution doesn’t just cause new mutations, it can “wake up” dormant cancer cells that already exist in the lungs, particularly among people who’ve never smoked.²

Neighborhoods closest to freeways, industrial zones, or ports, often home to working-class and minority residents, consistently record the highest PM2.5 levels.² Breathing that air day after day isn’t just uncomfortable; it can severely increase your chances of developing lung cancer.²

2. Radon Gas Lurking Indoors

Radon is an invisible, odorless radioactive gas that seeps up from the soil and can accumulate in homes.⁷ It’s the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, responsible for more than 21,000 deaths each year.⁷

Older buildings, basements, and homes with poor ventilation are most vulnerable.⁸ Because many Black and Brown families live in older housing or rental properties where landlords neglect testing, radon exposure often goes undetected for decades.⁸

Testing is simple and inexpensive, yet access remains unequal.⁸ In affluent areas, radon checks are standard during home sales; in under-resourced neighborhoods, they’re a rarity.⁸ That oversight can mean the difference between prevention and a diagnosis.

3. Diesel Exhaust and Traffic Corridors

If your alarm clock is drowned out by the hum of trucks, you’re breathing more than city noise. Living within a few hundred feet of a major roadway exposes you to diesel exhaust, which contains tiny particles coated in carcinogenic hydrocarbons.⁹

Diesel fumes cause chronic inflammation, scarring, and DNA damage in lung tissue.⁹ The World Health Organization classifies diesel exhaust as a Group 1 carcinogen, the same category as tobacco smoke and asbestos.⁹

Across the South and Midwest, predominantly Black neighborhoods are often carved between highways or freight routes—a relic of redlining and highway expansion projects that bulldozed through once-thriving communities.⁵ Those same routes now carry pollution that seeps into bedrooms, playgrounds, and lungs.⁵

4. Industrial and “Legacy” Contamination

Factories, refineries, chemical plants, and former military bases release a toxic mix of heavy metals, solvents, and asbestos into the environment. Even long after facilities close, these pollutants linger in soil and groundwater.¹⁰

Residents living near these “legacy sites” face higher rates of lung cancer, COPD, and other respiratory illnesses.¹⁰ Cleanup programs are slow, and corporate accountability is uneven. Meanwhile, property values and the people who live there carry the burden.¹⁰

For Black and Brown families who’ve lived in these areas for generations, exposure isn’t a one-time event, it’s a continuous inheritance.⁵

5. Housing Conditions and Secondhand Smoke

In multi-unit buildings, smoke doesn’t stay in one apartment. It drifts through vents, hallways, and cracks in the walls. Adults exposed to secondhand smoke have a 20–30 percent higher risk of developing lung cancer, even if they’ve never smoked.²

HUD banned smoking in public housing in 2018, but enforcement is inconsistent. Many residents, often older adults or families with asthma-prone children, still report exposure from neighboring units. Clean indoor air shouldn’t depend on who lives next door.²