Media releases

• Public talk to focus on resistance in Nazi Germany

  Friday, September 22, 2023 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: September 18 2023 – R0084

  The lives of those who resisted Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany will take centre stage at an upcoming public lecture hosted by Brock University.

  Held Thursday, Sept. 21 at 6:30 p.m., “I won’t go along with this: Resistance by the Persecuted in Nazi Germany,” will feature esteemed scholar Kristin Semmens, Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria and author of Under the Swastika in Nazi Germany.

  The event, which coincides with the United Nations International Day of Peace, is presented by Brock’s Faculty of Humanities and will take place at Pond Inlet on the University’s main campus.

  Elizabeth Vlossak, Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, and Professor of History in Brock’s Faculty of Humanities, said it is a privilege to welcome Semmens to the University.

  “Not only is she a leading historian on Nazi Germany and an award-winning teacher, but she is also an active Holocaust educator beyond the university, speaking at schools, faith organizations and other public venues about the dangers of racism in the past and the necessity of challenging it in the present,” Vlossak said.

  The lecture will be based on Semmens’ research and insight as an expert in 20th-century German and European history, specializing in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Her unique approach to broadly defining “resistance” will outline a variety of forms in which the persecuted attempted to oppose their oppressors.

  “This is an important talk that promises to be thought-provoking,” said Vlossak, who encouraged the Brock and wider Niagara community to attend.

  While the event is free, advance registration is encouraged through ExperienceBU.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock researcher investigating link between lung cancer, air pollution

  Friday, September 22, 2023 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: September 15 2023 – R0083

  A Brock University researcher is part of a national team that has received funding from the Terry Fox Research Institute to investigate the relationship between air pollution and lung cancer.

  Martin Tammemägi is co-leading the “Air Pollution and Lung Cancer Risk Prediction” project, one of four research areas in a larger $2.4-million, four-year project headed by the University of British Columbia’s Stephen Lam.

  Tammemägi and his team will be creating a tool that predicts the risk of lung cancer in people who have never smoked, with a particular focus on evaluating the effects of air pollution.

  The tool builds on the Brock Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology’s earlier lung cancer prediction model for smokers, which is being used to determine eligibility for lung cancer screening in Ontario, British Columbia and the United Kingdom. Other areas in Canada and Europe are considering implementing the model.

  In this latest project, Tammemägi, along with the University of British Columbia’s Trevor Drummer, will extend the previous research to non-smokers.

  “The proportion of lung cancers in individuals who never smoked is growing and in some parts of the world outnumber lung cancer in individuals who smoked,” he says. “Lung cancer in individuals who never smoked when considered as a separate group is the seventh leading cause of cancer deaths.”

  In the lung prediction model for individuals who smoked, individuals are assessed using 11 factors, including the average number of cigarettes smoked per day, the number of years of smoking, whether they currently smoke, race/ethnicity, age, highest level of education obtained, family history of lung cancer, personal history of cancer and lung disease, and body mass index.

  These predictors are included in mathematical equations to estimate the risk of an individual getting lung cancer over time.

  The new model will eliminate the criteria related to smoking and instead will include exposure to a class of airborne pollutants known as particulate matter or ‘PM_2.5 ‘, which are tiny particles of soot, elemental and organic carbon, among other things. The impact of nitrogen dioxide and ozone will also be evaluated.

  “Air pollution may lead to cancer by causing inflammation and oxidative stress of lung tissue and by inactivating cancer controlling genes,” says Tammemägi.

  He says scientists study cumulative exposure to air pollution by linking individuals’ residential addresses to satellite image estimates of different air pollutants.

  “Because historical records of such data have been stored, we can look back over 20 years to summarize cumulative air pollution exposures,” says Tammemägi.

  To construct the new model, he and his team will be using patient data from studies produced by a variety of research groups in Canada, the U.K., Taiwan and the U.S.

  As in the case of the model for individuals who smoked, the purpose of the lung cancer prediction model for individuals who did not smoke is to identify individuals who are at high risk for cancer so that they can be offered and benefit from lung cancer screening.

  Low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening for high-risk individuals detects earlier stages of cancer, which are often cured by surgery. Without screening, most lung cancers are detected at advanced stages, with most cases having poor survival.

  Tammemägi says CT lung cancer screening has been shown to reduce lung cancer mortality by more than 20 per cent in high-risk individuals.

  In Canada, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, according to government statistics, with survival for lung cancer among the lowest of all types of cancer.

  Research has shown lung cancers in non-smoking individuals are due to many reasons, including environmental air pollution. Increasing evidence suggests outdoor air pollution is a major cause of lung cancer in people who have never smoked, says Tammemägi.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209

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  Categories: Media releases