The Link Between the Environment and Breast Cancer
What are the environmental causes of breast cancer and how can we put an end to them? That is a question that should be top of mind for researchers.
Last week I interviewed a survivor for a story I’m working on (yes, I do that often) and she was talking to me about her organization (Connecticut Breast Cancer Coalition/Foundation) and the research they are working on funding related to the link between the environment and breast cancer cases.
This morning I read this cool article in the Jamaica Gleaner of all places about a study conducted by the Silent Spring Institute in the US (funded by Susan G. Koman for the Cure and assisted by additional researchers from Harvard University, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the University of Southern California): Environmental Pollutants and Breast Cancer.
Here’s the fact that made me take pause: “The researchers identified 216 chemicals that caused breast tumours in animals. They broke down the compounds in this way: 73 are present in consumer products or as contaminants in food.”
Contaminants in food … holy crap, we’re doomed. Just when you think you’ve heard enough reasons to only consume organic foods but you’re still not changing your ways, this comes up. (Believe me, I’m a seriously slow convert myself; maybe this will be the conduit for change for me).
So I’m nervous, right, and I go on to read this on the Silent Spring Institutes’s press release on the study: “the overwhelming majority of chemicals people are exposed to have never been tested for cancer risk.”
Holy crap. Just think about it.
More research needed? Heck, yeah! Let’s save our daughters and our granddaughters from getting breast cancer when they’re … say … ten.
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