Armen Tananyan, Deputy Director of Armenia’s National Oncology Center, told reporters today that research shows that the leading form of cancer in provinces where mining takes place is lung cancer.

Tananyan said these results are based on a recent cancer survey carried out in Artsakh and throughout Armenia.

When asked by this reporter if there was a connection between the breathing of factory exhausts and lung cancer, Tananyan said there was a direct correlation and that smoking, stress and hereditary factors also played a role.

The oncologist says that cancer rates in Armenia (240 out of 100,000 for first time patients) was in line with figures compiled by the World Health Organization for Eastern Europe and former Soviet countries.