Chemical pollutants in the environment could be one driver behind the
soaring rates of breast cancer, a report has claimed.
Changes in lifestyle have been blamed for an 81 per cent increase in the
incidence of the disease in Britain since the early 1970s but the role of
chemicals has been neglected, it says.
In the report for the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), Andreas
Kortenkamp, from London University's School of Pharmacy, says exposure to
pollutants used in the manufacture of products from plastics to cosmetics
has a known "endocrine disrupting" effect.
The chemicals mimic the female sex-hormone oestrogen, and have been blamed
for "feminised" fish and frogs, as well as declining sperm counts
in men, and may also be helping to trigger breast cancer. The claim was
immediately dismissed by Cancer Research UK who said the report contained "
no new findings" and did not review all the evidence available.
The WWF, which campaigns against hormone-disrupting chemicals, has been
pressing the European Union to finalise new legislation called REACH, which
is designed to protect people and the environment from man-made chemicals in
the face of resistance from the industry.
In the WWF report, Dr Kortenkamp points out that less than half of new
breast cancer cases can be explained solely by lifestyle factors and
genetics.
He highlights two key ways that oestrogenic chemicals may be contributing to
breast cancer.
One is the "cocktail effect" of exposure to several different
oestrogen-mimicking chemicals. The other is exposure to the chemicals during
critical periods, such as when baby girls are in the womb, or at puberty. He
said: "To prove or dismiss a link with breast cancer, exposure to
chemicals must be recorded many years before the cancer becomes manifest.
"Measuring chemicals at a time when the disease is diagnosed will miss
important features and will provide a warped picture."
The paper calls for strong legislation to control endocrine disrupters.
Dr Kortenkamp said a recent Spanish study had demonstrated an association
between breast cancer risk and oestrogen-mimicking chemicals.
"This is the first evidence that chemicals in our environment, with
oestrogenic properties that are 'accidental', and not just natural hormones
or pharmaceutical oestrogens, may contribute to the development of breast
cancer," he said.
Josephine Querido, information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "
This report does not present any new findings and does not review all of the
evidence available.
"There is considerable public concern about whether hormone-disrupting
chemicals - both in the environment and in household goods - affect breast
cancer risk.
"But it has not been proven conclusively that they do, and a number of
studies have contradicted the suggestion.
"Compared with the levels of natural oestrogen circulating in a woman's
blood, the levels of these chemicals are very small indeed. The increase in
breast cancer rates in the last few decades has been linked to lifestyle
changes. These include the trend for women to have fewer children later in
life, increased bodyweight in post menopausal women, the use of hormone
treatments like HRT and the Pill and increasing alcohol consumption."
© Copyright 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
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