Many chemicals increase breast cancer risk

Study names 17 chemicals that could cause breast cancer

05/13/2014

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women in Germany. For the first time in a study, US scientists have listed 17 chemicals that could trigger breast cancer. Many of these substances could be well avoided in everyday life.

17 chemicals that could cause breast cancer
Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer among women in Germany, with about one in eight suffering from it during their lifetime. In a Monday in the journal „Environmental Health Perspectives“ published study list the authors around Ruthann „Silent Spring Institute“ In Newtown, Massachusetts, there are now 17 chemicals that could cause breast cancer in experimental rats, and may also affect women. Among other things, 44 existing studies with data from more than 3.5 million breast cancer patients were summarized in a meta-study. In everyday life, these chemicals could easily be avoided by simple means, the scientists write.

Follow simple precautionary measures
Accordingly, the potentially hazardous chemicals in car exhaust, in tobacco smoke or charred food, in solvents, stripping and fire retardants, stain-resistant textiles and in drinking water before. As a precautionary measure, women should therefore expose themselves to as little exhaust fumes as possible, use electric mowers, turn on the fume hood when cooking, and restrict food from the grill. According to the study, when buying sofas and armchairs, care should be taken to ensure that they do not contain polyurethane foam and have not been treated with anti-oxidants. Furthermore, you should completely dispense with stain-repellent carpets or fabrics and seek cleaning that does not use perchlorethylene or other solvents. In addition, the study suggests buying carbon filters for drinking water and HEPA filters for vacuum cleaners and removing their street shoes at home.

Connection was ignored for a long time
Your study is one „Roadmap for the prevention of breast cancer“, as Rudel said, according to a message from the news agency AFP. According to co-author Julia Brody, this is the first time that a full-scale study has listed potentially breastcancer-inducing chemicals and gives experts detailed information on how to measure them in women's blood and urine. „Unfortunately, the link between harmful chemicals and breast cancer has long been ignored“, so Brody. If they are less exposed to these chemicals, many women could save their lives. According to figures from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), around 17,000 women die of breast cancer each year in Germany. In more than 70,000 women, a breast tumor is diagnosed every year in Germany. (Sb)