Geospatial study links lung cancer hotspots in Bagmati to air pollution

Nepal’s lung cancer crisis cannot be understood by looking only at hospital records or individual risk factors; we must also ask a fundamental geographical question: where are people being exposed to the conditions that increase their risk? The air we breathe is not the same everywhere. Rapid urbanisation, traffic emissions, household air pollution, industrial activities, dust, biomass and solid-fuel use, and changing environmental conditions create highly uneven patterns of exposure across Nepal. Yet these spatial inequalities often remain invisible in conventional health statistics.

In recent years, cancer has stood as a major global public health challenge. Notably, the incidence of lung cancer is rapidly increasing in developing countries. According to the World Health Organisation, cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2024, or nearly one in six deaths. The most common cancer is lung cancer, with 2.6 million cases. It is the most common cancer seen in men, primarily due to factors such as smoking, low air quality, haphazard industrialisation, and lifestyle changes. It is not distributed evenly across all geographical locations; the risks vary by place due to environmental conditions and social behaviours. It is also associated with access to healthcare services. In Nepal, there has also been a significant increase in the incidence of lung cancer in the last decade, highlighting the seriousness of this problem and the need for municipal-level analysis for a better understanding of its impacts.