Cancer Linked to Endocrine Disruptors

By Linda Mason Hunter

DECEMBER 8, 2009: The probable cause of breast and other cancers has always fascinated me, perhaps because I’ve seen statistics increase so dramatically in my lifetime. In 1975 the risk that a 50-year-old white woman would develop breast cancer was 1%; today that statistic has soared to 12%. Likewise, asthma rates have tripled over the last 25 years. Childhood leukemia is increasing by 1% per year. Obesity has surged.

Some of this is may be due to lifestyle changes—less physical exercise, more stress and fast food—but a large percentage is likely linked to the increase in synthetic chemicals in our highly industrialized environment. They are everywhere—in our cosmetics, food, air, water. Of the more than 80,000 synthetic chemicals registered with the U.S. EPA, only a fraction have been tested for long-term health effects, and virtually none of them have been tested for synergistic effects—what happens when chemicals mix and mingle with each other as they do in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and when they accumulate in our bodies.

One puzzling fact pointing to the answer is that most women living in Asia have low rates of breast cancer, but ethnic Asian women born and raised in the United States don’t enjoy that benefit. Daughters of Asian women who immigrant to the U.S. have the same breast cancer rates as white women born and raised here.

According to a recent article in The New York Times (Dec. 6, 2009, Opinion, page 11), we need look no further than our kitchens for cancer culprits. Written by Nicholas Kristof and titled “Cancer from the Kitchen,” the article sums up a symposium the author recently attended at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, exploring whether certain common chemicals are linked to breast cancer, leukemia, Parkinsons disease, asthma, and other ailments.

Medical experts at the Symposium focused considerable attention on a group of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors which fool the body in setting off hormonal changes. Endocrine disruptors (especially those mimicking estrogen) are found in everything from certain plastics to various cosmetics.

What can you do to reduce your risk? Start by being careful with plastic. When certain plastic containers get hot, they release toxins into the contents of the container. Avoid microwaving food in plastic. Don’t put plastic in the dishwasher. Avoid plastics numbered 3, 6, and 7, because they aren’t as safe as other plastics. You can find the number within the triangular recycling code usually on the bottom of the container.

WEEKEND PROJECT: Go through all the containers in your kitchen and toss out those marked 3, 6, and 7.

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