Breast Health and Environment

Over 80% of all cancers have environmental origins. The basic way of determining if a factor is environmental is to establish if it can be modified, and therefore prevented. Your personal lifestyle choices fit under the category of “environmental” but they alone do not make up the entire picture.

Pollutants in our air, toxic chemicals in our food and water, cosmetic pesticides, radiation and electromagnetic field exposure in our homes and workplaces and other synthetic substances that are foreign to nature should be a concern to everyone. As a society, we need to understand that we share one world.

In 1962, biologist Rachel Carson warned of a coming cancer epidemic in her book Silent Spring. Yesterday, I spent the day with a young woman who lost her right breast to cancer when she was 28.

Consider educating yourself on an environmental issue in your community that needs attention. Your involvement in your community will improve conditions for you and your family's health. Don't wait until someone you love loses a breast to cancer.