Breast Cancer Prevention: Why Environmental Regulations are Public Health Policies

Globally, breast cancer affects more women than any other type of cancer and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women. Widely understood risk factors for breast cancer including primary genetic mutations; reproductive history; and lifestyle factors only account for a portion of the risk for the disease. A substantial and growing body of scientific evidence indicates that exposures to common chemicals and radiation, singly and in combination, also contribute to the unacceptably high incidence of breast cancer. We will present an evidence-based framework of breast cancer and the environment that considers windows of susceptibility, low dose exposures, mixtures of exposures, and interactions with other individual (e.g., genetic) and social factors. We then will present inadequacies in the patchwork of regulations by Federal agencies related to the management of more than 80,000 synthetic chemicals registered for use in the United States. Chemicals linked to breast cancer can be found in consumer products, occupational settings, and in air, water, and soil, but federal policy lacks the authority to require full safety testing and regulation of these chemicals. Exposures to chemicals are often inequitably distributed in ways that further health disparities based upon race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. We will conclude with recommendations for testing, regulating and replacing endocrine disrupting and carcinogenic chemicals.