The link between toxins and breast cancer

The UK's No More Breast Cancer campaign wants the link between breast cancer and everyday exposure to toxic chemicals taken seriously. The US has its 1930s legislation under review - it's time we did the same.

Breast cancer cases have hit a new record yet fewer than 50% of cases are attributed to acknowledged ‘risk’ factors – age, obesity, late-age pregnancy, late onset menopause.

The Campaign argues that lifelong, low-level exposure to the cocktail of hundreds of toxics and hormone-disruptors in our everyday lives – from pesticide residues in food to chemicals in consumer products and in the workplace – is linked to ever-rising rates of the disease.

As part of this, they want the British government to mark a new approach by ensuring the substitution of all carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting chemicals with safer alternatives, as soon as they are available.

In the environment

100,000 man-made chemicals are polluting our environment.

500 man-made chemicals are thought to disrupt the hormones in our body and mimic the role of oestrogen – this hormone is closely linked with the development of many breast cancers.

In our bodies

At least 300 man-made chemicals have been found in human blood and body tissue. Cancer-causing substances and hormone-disrupting chemicals are included in this ‘toxic burden’.

So...

Lighten the toxic burden on your body - go organic wherever possible, recognise carcinogenic ingredients. Small differences can make a BIG difference.