- SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -
Faced with an alarming and unexplained rise in new breast cancer cases,
California officials called on Wednesday for a pilot program to monitor
breast milk for signs that environmental contamination plays in a role
in the spread of the deadly disease.
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- "When women in America today are getting breast
cancer at a rate that is three times the rate of 50 years ago, something
is seriously wrong," state Assemblyman Dario Frommer said at a special
joint meeting of the legislature's health committees.
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- "We need to take a hard look at what is causing
this surge in cancer and what we can do to reverse this trend."
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- Frommer and state Senator Deborah Ortiz said they planned
to introduce legislation early next year which would make California the
first state in the nation to embark on a program to monitor breast milk
for chemical contaminants -- hoping to draw a link between such everyday
products as pesticides, fuels, plastics and detergents and increasing numbers
of breast cancer patients in the state.
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- Breast cancer rates across the country have increased
steadily in recent years, with the risk of a woman contracting the disease
at some point during her life now at 1-in-8, against 1-in-22 just 50 years
ago.
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- RATE SKYROCKETING
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- Northern California in particular has seen breast cancer
diagnoses skyrocket. In the San Francisco Bay area, a woman's chance of
contracting breast cancer is now 1-in-7.
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- While the rising rates of breast cancer can be attributed
in part to the fact that fewer women are dying of infectious diseases and
many now live long enough to develop breast cancer, the disease itself
remains deadly. Nationally, breast cancer is the leading cause of death
in women aged 34 to 55, killing more than 40,000 women across the country
every year.
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- Wednesday's special legislative hearing in San Francisco
was called to address the latest studies of breast cancer incidence, and
what some scientists say is mounting evidence that environmental toxins
are contributing to the disease.
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- "I believe it is high time to seriously consider
environmental chemicals as the most likely cause of this sudden increase
in risk," said Dr. Ana Soto, a breast cancer specialist at Tufts Medical
School.
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- While many breast cancer studies focus on genetics, or
lifestyle factors such as reproductive history, alcohol use and exercise,
Soto said there was little being done to assess how environmental toxins
may be causing cancer.
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- "The increasing risk of breast cancer and other
cancers has paralleled the proliferation of synthetic chemicals since World
War II," Soto said, adding that only 7 percent of the estimated 85,000
synthetic chemicals registered for use in the United States had been subjected
to toxicological screening.
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- BREAST IS STILL BEST
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- Scientists, public health experts and community groups
put forward the plan to begin monitoring breast milk as a way of tracking
what types of toxins are entering women's bodies.
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- Breast milk is regarded as a good "biomarker"
for exposure to toxins because chemicals can accumulate in the breast's
fatty tissue for a number of years.
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- "When breast milk speaks, people listen," said
Jeanne Rizzo, executive director the Breast Cancer Fund, a San Francisco-based
advocacy group.
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- While most speakers at Thursday's hearing supported beginning
a breast milk monitoring program, many urged that it be undertaken carefully
and in tandem with public education to remind women that -- even with toxic
exposure -- breast milk is still by far the best source of nutrition for
infants.
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- "Breast is still best," said Donna Vivio, director
of global outreach at the American College of Nurse Midwives.
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- California is one of a number of states competing for
a three-year, $3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control to
implement new monitoring programs, and Dr. Richard Nuetra of the state's
Department of Health Services said the proposed breast milk program could
be one to receive funding if the grant is won.
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- Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the National
Resources Defense Council, said drawing more links between environmental
toxins and breast cancer could help to broaden understanding of who develops
the disease and why.
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- While there is thus far no direct proof that the presence
of chemical contaminants in breast milk directly leads to breast cancer,
Solomon said pilot studies like the one proposed for California could help
to make the connection.
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- "Breast milk is one of several canaries in various
mineshafts...but it is an important one," she said.
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