Breast cancer risk tripled for certain women

October 13 2006

Breast cancer risk tripled for women exposed to farm pesticides and
chemicals

http://www.newstarget.com/020760.html

(NewsTarget) Adolescent girls who work or live on farms may run a
higher risk of developing breast cancer later in life, according to a
new Canadian study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences.

Researchers from the University of Sterling in Scotland conducted a
study in Canada of 1,100 women, half of whom had already been diagnosed
with breast cancer. The researchers found that women with the disease
were nearly three times more likely to have been farm workers, most
during adolescence.

Toxic pesticides and other farm chemicals may be responsible for
changes in the women's developing breasts that eventually led to breast
cancer, the researchers concluded, because developing breast tissue is
especially vulnerable to exposure to toxins during teenage years.

According to professor Andrew Watterson, a researcher in the study,
roughly 4 percent of all cancers are related to a woman's occupation.
Watterson and colleagues found that the risk of breast cancer was
highest among women who worked or lived on farms during adolescence,
then went on to work in the auto or health industries.

According to the study's authors, certain chemicals involved in farm
work, as well as chemicals in the auto and health industries, could be
linked to cancer.

"Nurses and other healthcare workers are potentially exposed to
ionizing radiation... drugs, anesthetic waste gases, and viruses
possibly associated with cancer risk," the researchers wrote. "A number
of hormonally active chemicals are, or have been, used in medicine and
laboratory work." The study's authors added that a wide range of
solvents is commonly used in the car manufacturing business.

However, cancer epidemiology specialists are skeptical of the study,
which claims environmental chemicals are partly responsible for rising
breast cancer rates. Henry Scowcroft, science information officer at
Cancer Research UK, says Watterson's study involved too few subjects to
draw any firm conclusions.

"Breast cancer is on the rise in Western society," Scowcroft said. "All
the available scientific evidence shows this increase is largely down
to changes in lifestyle factors. Scientists have also looked at whether
environmental toxins might also contribute to the increase in breast
cancer, but have found no conclusive link."

Watterson and his team of researchers have acknowledged that the link
between farm and other environmental toxins and breast cancer should be
more thoroughly studied.

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