(05-02-13) Warning! Your job can cause breast cancer

by Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor

(NaturalNews) Breast cancer is frequently talked about as if it mysteriously
comes out of the blue to attack. But even when women have a known heightened
risk for the disease because of a specific gene they carry, only some will
actually develop breast cancer. Obviously, breast cancer must be triggered by
something other than bad luck or genes alone.

Now a study just published in BioMed Central's open access journal
Environmental Health provides new clues about what can cause a malignancy to
develop in breast tissue. The researchers' conclusion? Exposure to chemicals in
the environment appears to play a big role in the development of breast cancer.

In fact, the study confirms that specific jobs pose a higher risk of breast
malignancies than other occupations. The explanation is that certain careers
are more likely to expose a person to carcinogens (some of which may not have
yet been classified as such by government agencies) and chemicals that disrupt
the body's hormonal balance via the endocrine system. Industrialized countries
- especially in North America - not only are inundated with huge amounts of
these chemicals but they also have high rates of breast cancer.

For the new study, scientist James T. Brophy of the University of Stirling in
Scotland and his colleagues set out to investigate the possible links between
breast cancer and occupation, especially in manufacturing and farming. Their
population-based case-control study, carried out in Southern Ontario, Canada,
included 1006 breast cancer cases plus 1,147 randomly selected and matched
community controls.

The research team also gathered information with interviews and surveys to
come up with data on the occupational and reproductive histories of the
research subjects. Each job was given a code that reflected the odds of a woman
being exposed to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors while at work. The
pathology of the breast cancer patients' tumors was assessed to document the
endocrine receptor status of the malignancies, too.

The results were dramatic. Across all sectors, women in jobs with potentially
high exposures to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors had a significantly
higher risk of breast cancer. Jobs with increased risk included those involving
agriculture, bar/gambling, automotive plastics manufacturing, food canning and
metal-working. Premenopausal breast cancer risk among younger women was
especially high for those working in the automotive plastics and food canning
industries.

What's more, women with lower socioeconomic status had an elevated risk of
breast cancer overall. The researchers suggest this could be the result of
higher exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in lower-income areas where
there are more manufacturing and agricultural industries.

The results of the new study strengthen the evidence linking breast cancer
risk and exposure to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. "Our results
highlight the importance of occupational studies in identifying and quantifying
environmental risk factors and illustrates the value of taking detailed
occupational histories of cancer patients," lead researcher Brophy said in a
media statement. "Mounting evidence suggests that we need to re-evaluate
occupational exposure limits in regulatory protection."

What this also certainly suggests is that it is prudent for everyone to avoid
potentially cancer causing chemicals and hormone disruptors not only in the
workplace but in the home. For example, as Natural News has reported in depth
over the years, bisphenol A, or BPA, is an especially worrisome chemical (and
one that is noted in the new study) found in many consumer products, especially
plastics. BPA has long been known to disrupt hormones - although the FDA and
EPA have failed to ban its use - and the chemical is linked to a host of health
problems, including cancer. A study in Molecular Endocrinology, a journal of
the Endocrine Society, shows BPA can cause dangerous changes in breast
development which increase the odds of developing cancer.

Sources:

News

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