State of the evidence: what is the connection between chemicals and breast cancer?
Breast Cancer Fund and Breast Cancer Action - San Francisco
2003
44 p.
breast cancer ; chemicals ; ionising radiation ; occupational risks ; women workers ; occupational disease
Occupational diseases
English
"Breast cancer rates have been climbing steadily in the United States and other industrialized countries since the 1940's. In 2002 in the United States alone, breast cancer struck an estimated 205,000 women and killed nearly 40,000. Billions of dollars have been spent in an effort to stem this unrelenting tide; yet as many as 50 percent of breast cancer cases remain unexplained by the characteristics and risk factors associated with the disease.
Ionizing radiation is the best established environmental cause of human breast cancer. Yet powerful scientific evidence points to some of the 85,000 synthetic chemicals in use today as responsible for many of the unexplained cases of cancer in general and potentially also of breast cancer. While scientists have not yet developed an ideal method for linking chemical exposures to breast cancer, several types of research provide strong evidence of the connection between chemicals and breast cancer. "
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