https://theconversation.com/as-the-oceans-rise-so-do-your-risks-of-breast-cancer-108420
[links and images in online article]
As the oceans rise, so do your risks of breast cancer
January 15, 2019 6.35pm EST
It is encouraging to see greater attention in the media to the issue of
climate change and its effects on the life-support systems of the
planet. The link between breast cancer and the environment, however, is
being overlooked.
Premenopausal women exposed to high levels of air pollution have a 30
per cent increased risk for breast cancer, according to a paper in
Environmental Epidemiology published by Paul Villeneuve, a professor of
occupational and environmental health at Carleton University, and his
research team last year.
This should trigger a wake-up call given that we tend to think of breast
cancer as a disease of aging women.
In fact, the science of breast cancer tells us that “genetic
susceptibility makes only a small to moderate contribution” to breast
cancer. The known risk factors — such as family history, age, gender,
ethnicity and hormones — account for only around three in 10 cases.
The other 70 per cent are likely related mostly to environment —
including the air, water and soil, the places we live and work in and
the products we consume — according to current research.
In Canada, over 26,300 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017
so that 70 per cent represents a lot of women.
Carcinogens in the workplace
Our work environments are part of this story.
A paper published last November in New Solutions Journal points to
workplace exposures as the cause for one woman’s breast cancer.
Using the evidence presented at a worker’s compensation hearing, Michael
Gilbertson, a former federal government biologist who studied the health
effects of toxic chemicals, and Jim Brophy, an occupational health
researcher, found that they could infer a causal relationship between
the woman’s diagnosis of breast cancer and her high exposure to air
pollution — as a border guard at the bridge connecting Windsor, Ont. to
Detroit, Mich.
Despite the scientific evidence highlighting environmental factors and
the important role they likely play in contributing to breast cancer,
the woman at the bridge was denied compensation.
She was denied even though breast cancers were occurring in this region
at a rate up to 16 times higher than the rest of the county, and in an
environment with pollutants containing known breast carcinogens such as
benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
It is not surprising, given that environment is regularly ignored when
we talk about breast cancer.
A disease of our communities
When researchers study what women know about breast cancer they find a
focus on cures, detection and treatments. What’s often missing from
their list is prevention, and prevention is often confused with early
detection.
Primary prevention means stopping cancer before it starts — not finding
it and treating it early, although that too is important. Women’s
knowledge of breast cancer is importantly connected to media and medical
practitioner’s messages.
Forecasts of the future of cancer tell us that one in two Canadians will
likely be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Projections show
rising rates of many cancers, including breast cancer.
Dr. Ted Schettler, who wrote The Ecology of Breast Cancer argues:
“breast cancer is not only a disease of abnormal cells, but also of
communities we create and live in.”
If we apply his argument, it means we can create conditions for fewer
future breast cancers. The question then becomes how?
We cannot blame women
To start, we need to make prevention at least as much a priority as
early detection, better treatments and the search for cures. We also
have to take a good look at all suspected causes.
Conversations about prevention often stir debate about what is to blame
for the breast cancer rates we are seeing. But an aging population of
women who make bad lifestyle choices doesn’t explain increases in breast
cancers in more and younger women.
It doesn’t explain why women who migrate from countries with lower rates
of breast cancer develop the same rates within 10 years of living in
their new homes. It also doesn’t explain the clusters of breast cancers
in regions with high levels of air pollution containing definitive
breast carcinogens.
We need confidence in what the science is already showing us about the
role of environmental and workplace hazards in breast cancer causation.
Indeed, the evidence points to associations between numerous
environmental pollutants and an increased risk for breast cancer —
including pesticides, herbicides, synthetic chemicals, endocrine
disrupting chemicals and vehicle emissions. Living and working in
proximity to these exposures, especially during vulnerable windows of
development, is putting women at high risk.
Some occupations, including radiology, pharmacy, health care,
hairdressing, working with plastics, manufacturing, agriculture, working
as airline crew and firefighting, also carry a higher risk. These
occupational sectors employ thousands of thousands of women worldwide.
We need greater awareness and extended programmes that focus on these
environmental and workplace causes. And we need to create and enforce
policies and put regulations in place that prevent such exposures.
The climate change link
The women in Paul Villeneuve’s study are not unlike the female border
guard. These cases are all linked to high levels of air pollution. Their
stories are those of countless other women who face exposures to breast
carcinogens in many Canadian urban environments and workplaces with high
levels of traffic and industrial pollution.
We also have evidence that these exposures are increasing, as our
climate is changing. This link is complex, as is so much about cancer
generally. Air pollution is one of the many causes of climate change as
well as breast cancer.
It is also believed that increased ambient air temperatures may change
the effects of chemical contaminants on humans and that increased
precipitation and flooding will move contaminants to places where
greater exposure by humans is possible.
Finally, as the incidence of fires increase with climate change,
exposures to chemicals associated with the development of breast cancer
often found in fires also increase. Studies are now investigating
possible elevated incidence of breast cancer among women firefighters.
They are clearly a highly exposed group and may be just one example of
women bearing an elevated breast cancer risk.
Prevention a priority
At this important moment in history, as we debate the poor state of the
environment and the adverse outcomes associated with it, we have the
opportunity to make prevention of the many diseases — including breast
cancer — a priority.
Many stories report on the numerous health problems connected to climate
change including other cancers, cardiovascular disease, fertility
problems, asthma, adverse birth outcomes, disabilities, diabetes and
stroke. And yet, despite increasing evidence of an association between
breast cancer and environmental exposures, the media does not cover this
piece of the story.
We must do the work now to create a future where we won’t have to
surrender our good health to unregulated exposure to known and suspected
breast carcinogens. Instead we must implement the precautionary
principle — in our communities, our workplaces and across our planet.