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Breast Cancer: Risk Factors and Prevention
By Roberta Attanasio Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. How can it be prevented? Let’s take a look at some of the answers available today (January 17, 2014). First of all, what is cancer prevention? According to the National Cancer Institute “Cancer prevention is action taken to lower the chance of getting cancer. By preventing cancer, the number of new cases of cancer in a group or population is lowered. Hopefully, this will lower the number of deaths caused by cancer.” A little more….. “To prevent new cancers from starting, scientists look at risk factors and protective factors. Anything that increases your chance of developing cancer is called a cancer…
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Breast Cancer: Prevention is Better than Cure
By The Editors The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) is a leading European not-for-profit organization addressing how the environment affects health in the European Union. With the support of more than 65 member organizations, HEAL brings independent expertise and evidence from the health community to different decision-making processes. According to HEAL, “the role that environmental factors play in cancer causation, specifically carcinogenic substances and other cancer-related chemicals, is increasingly recognized. Consequently, reducing exposure to hazardous substances is gaining prominence as a key approach to cancer prevention.” On October 23, 2013, HEAL member Breast Cancer UK (BCUK) launched its Manifesto ‘Prevention is better than cure: 5 pledges for 2015 and beyond’ calling on the…
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Benzene, Leukemia and Lymphoma
By Roberta Attanasio It’s said to have a sweet smell, or a gasoline-like odor. It’s mostly in the air, and sometime in the water and soil. It’s found all around the world. It’s in cigarette smoke and gasoline vapors. It’s a known human carcinogen – a substance known to cause cancer. It’s benzene. Its target organ is the bone marrow, the soft spongy tissue that lies within the hollow interior of long bones and produces all types of blood cells. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) in the “Toxicological Profile for Benzene” states: “Everyone is exposed to a small amount of…
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Arsenic in Rice: Links to Genetic Damage
By The Editors Rice is a staple food for over 3 billion people worldwide. Unfortunately, rice contaminated with arsenic can be found in several regions of our planet. Although serious concerns have been raised in the past few years over the consumption of rice tainted with high levels of arsenic, there was no direct proof of its harmful effects on human populations. Now, results from a new study indicate that staple consumption of cooked rice containing high levels of arsenic leads to genotoxic damage. Arsenic, one of the heavy metals, is a chemical element normally present in water, air and soil. It is released from volcanoes and from the erosion…
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A Not-So-New Role for Bisphenol A: Mammary Gland Carcinogen
By The Editors Bisphenol A (BPA) is not just a harmful chemical found in many plastic products — it’s also a news champion, and our guess is we’ll keep hearing about it for a long time. The latest? BPA may act as a complete mammary gland carcinogen. BPA is a known endocrine disruptor (a chemical able to interfere with the body’s endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects in both humans and wildlife) and a potential environmental obesogen (a chemical able to disrupt the normal development and balance of lipid metabolism, which can lead to obesity). Moreover, mounting scientific evidence strongly suggests a link between BPA and cancer.…
