Treating The Whole Person - Medicine Conference - 4/13

[Guest guest]

> Treating the Whole Person is the topic of the opening plenary at the Breast

> Cancer Options 7th Annual Complementary Medicine Conference on 4/13/08.

> http://www.breastcanceroptions.org/ComplementaryMedicineCo.asp and we would

like

> your input on this topic. If you have questions, stories or insights for the

> panel please email us at: hopenemiroff@... and let us know your

> thoughts.

>

> Breast Cancer Fund Releases Most Comprehensive Report to-Date of Chemicals

> Linked to Breast Cancer, Many in Everyday Use

> http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=kwKXLdPaE &

> b=1745617 & ct=5117853

>

> " State of the Evidence " report describes how early-life exposures are

> critical to later-life breast cancer risk

>

> San Francisco- The Breast Cancer Fund today released " State of the

> Evidence, " a comprehensive report that catalogs and explores the many links

between

> exposures to toxic chemicals and radiation and increased breast cancer risk.

>

> " The picture of breast cancer causation is maddeningly complex ? there is no

> smoking gun, no one chemical or product or even gene that by itself causes

> breast cancer, " said Jeanne Rizzo, R.N., Executive Director of the Breast

> Cancer Fund. " But the trends that have emerged lead us to stop asking IF there

is

> a link between breast cancer and the environment, but to ask how to move

> forward with the strong and compelling evidence we have now. "

>

> The report comes after the U.S. Senate passed legislation on March 6 to

> strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The bill included an

amendment

> sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that will require all child care

> products and children's toys sold throughout the United States to be free of

> phthalates, a chemical found in many flexible plastics.

>

> " Because phthalates can disrupt the hormones in a child's developing body,

> they may trigger early puberty or cause reproductive harm, " said Rizzo. " The

> U.S. Senate is now on record that parents shouldn't have to worry that their

> children's toys might be harmful. "

>

> Phthalates and a host of other chemicals have been shown to mimic or alter

> the activities of the natural hormones and potentially increase breast cancer

> risk. Endocrine disruptors may be found in pesticides, plastics, detergents,

> industrial solvents, tobacco smoke, prescription drugs, food additives and

> personal care products.

>

> In the new report, the Breast Cancer Fund provides the most comprehensive

> listing to-date of chemicals linked to breast cancer, including natural and

> synthetic estrogens; xenoestrogens and other endocrine-disrupting compounds;

> carcinogenic chemicals and radiation. This exhaustive catalog provides a much

> more complex picture of breast cancer causation than traditionally accepted,

> one in which timing, mixtures and dose of environmental exposures interact

with

> genes and lifestyle factors.

>

> A major trend arising from the report is that early-life exposures to

> endocrine disruptors?particularly during gestation and childhood, but also

> continuing through first childbirth and breastfeeding?are critical to

later-life

> breast cancer risk. These compounds have yet to be classified as carcinogens

by

> the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) or the National

> Toxicology Program (NTP), even though recent studies show an explicit health

risk.

>

> Among the risks discussed in State of the Evidence 2008 are bisphenol A, a

> component of hard plastic found in some popular water bottles and baby bottles

> that was originally developed as a synthetic estrogen; the pesticides DDT

> and atrazine; air pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; hormone

> replacement therapy; and ionizing radiation. The report also highlights that

> early puberty, influenced by a variety of factors including phthalates, is

> itself a risk factor for later-life breast cancer.

>

> " The mass of data on timing of exposure is extraordinary from a scientist's

> perspective, and scary from a personal perspective, " said Janet Gray, Ph.D.,

> editor of State of the Evidence 2008. " We have a responsibility to our

> children and grandchildren to take action now that may prevent a breast cancer

> diagnosis in 10, 20 or 50 years. The science is there to support change, and

> lawmakers, researchers and industries are beginning to recognize this.?

>

> This report, which cites more than 400 epidemiological and experimental

> studies, was edited by Janet Gray, Ph.D., of Vassar College and reviewed by

> experts in medicine and science, including Kristan Aronson, Ph.D., Queen's

> University, Canada; Devra Lee , Ph.D., M.P.H., University of Pittsburgh;

> Suzanne E. Fenton, Ph.D., NHEERL, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Annie

J.

> Sasco, M.D., Dr.P.H., UniversitîGictor Segalen Bordeaux 2, France; and Ana

> Soto, M.D., Tufts University School of Medicine.

>

**************

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