SOLACE - understanding the links between soil pollution and cancer

Cancer, the second leading cause of death in EU countries

Cancer is a huge threat for Europe’s citizens and health systems: in 2020 the cancer burden in the EU is estimated to have risen to 1.3 million deaths, making it the second leading cause of death. Additionally, projections show that the number of cancer cases will increase by a quarter by 2035. While lifestyle choices and cancer are relatively well understood, beating cancer requires a comprehensive approach to better understand the links between the environment and people’s health.

You are what you eat

The accumulation, transformation and uptake of a range of pollutants in soil via the food chain is known to adversely affect human health. In this context, it is clear that links between polluted soils and food safety need to be explored. Understanding what crops are growing in potentially contaminated soils (or in soils with naturally high levels of metals) and associated foodstuffs is a critical step to reduce environmental risk.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

The Project brings together a set of established competences and activities in the Joint Research Centre in relation to health, soil and food security. These are

• The LUCAS Soil Survey will produce spatial assessments of the distribution of metal concentrations in soil. Hot spots of polluted soils for individual elements will be identified and attempts will be made to identify sources (i.e. natural background or anthropogenic) while relevant soil characteristics that affect the mobility of pollutants in soil (e.g. pH, texture, water balance, etc.) will be taken into account.
• The Cancer Information System will extract statistics on tumours generally associated with exposure to carcinogenic metals. Statistical relationships (e.g. spatial correlations) between soil pollution incidence and tumour occurrences will be assessed and  an overview of additional risk factors linked with the investigated tumour sites will be taken into account, as well as potential confounding variables such as socioeconomic information.
• IPCHEM, will investigate additional relevant data on soil pollution from national data sources. F3 will further support the assessment of health risks from multiple pollutants (mixtures) found in soil and in investigating the plausibility of associations between health effects and the detected chemicals considering mechanistic toxicity information.
• D5 will apply novel data processing techniques to provide field-level information on crop type across the EU. This information can be directly linked to the results of the LUCAS soil analysis to identify spatial associations of crops and heavy metals.

More info on the SOLACE-project can be found on the website of the European Commission.