Environmental Breast Cancer Risk Factors

When most people think of improving their health, they think of quitting tobacco, losing weight, reducing their alcohol consumption, and eating less fat and meat. Few people think about the common every day household chemicals around them that are also negatively effecting their health.

Your health, and by extension your breast health, is not just about breast self-exams and exercising more; it also involves reducing your exposure and your family’s exposure to known carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) and questionable chemicals.

In the 2010 report entitled “State of the Evidence: The Connections Between Breast Cancer and the Environment,” the Breast Cancer Fund, a major breast cancer and environmental advocacy non-profit, outlines a number of these substances. Some of them are as common as the BPA found in the lining of the majority of canned goods, pesticides found on our food and lawns, common chemicals found in our cosmetics, and the hormones found in the majority of factory-raised meat and dairy.

I urge you to visit the Breast Cancer Fund’s website and educate yourself on these pervasive chemicals, their effect on you and your family’s health, and read tips on ways you can avoid them. And most importantly, once aware, I urge you take action and improve your breast health.

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