More than 900 widely used chemicals may increase breast cancer risk
By Liza Gross, Inside Climate News
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More than 900 chemicals in widespread use could be increasing breast cancer risk, scientists reported in a peer-reviewed study published today.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women globally, and recently replaced lung cancer as the most commonly diagnosed form of the disease. Up to 80 percent of female breast cancers depend on estrogen and progesterone, and a growing body of research links increased activity of these hormones to breast cancer.
“We have evidence from both human studies and animal models supporting the idea that chemicals that increase estrogen and progesterone are health concerns and increase breast cancer risk,” said Jennifer Kay, an expert on the adverse effects of environmental exposures who led the study for the Silent Spring Institute, a nonprofit research group dedicated to reducing toxic threats to women’s health.