Avoidable Exposures

Avoidable Exposures (for breast cancer survivors)

Then a strange blight crept over the area, and everything began to change… .
There was a strange stillness… . The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they
trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings
that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird voices, there was now
no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.

—Rachel Carson, from Silent Spring, September 1962

Goal: Learn how to limit your exposure to toxins to a manageable level

With the publication of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson inspired a generation. For the
first time in human history, millions of people learned that the indiscriminate use of
pesticides threatened both their health and that of the planet. Through scrupulous
study and observation, Carson ascertained that in nature, where all species are
interconnected, chemicals aimed only at insects were soon ingested by other
animals and passed up the food chain. “As few as eleven large earthworms can
transfer a lethal dose of DDT to a robin,” Carson wrote (1962, 108). “And eleven
worms form a small part of a day’s rations to a bird that eats ten to twelve
earthworms in as many minutes.” Carson’s work spawned an engaged and active
environmental movement, and although it can boast many successes (such as the
banning of the pesticide DDT), it has also faced a number of escalating challenges
in the ensuing decades, as more and more hastily tested or untested chemicals have
been released into the environment.

Pollutants and chemical contaminants can activate cancer in a variety of ways. In
this chapter we’ll take a look at some of them.

The President’s Cancer Panel

Although Rachel Carson lit the spark, it wasn’t until 2010 that a firestorm was
finally ignited with the publication of the President’s Cancer Panel report (Leffall
and Kripke), Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now. The 200-
plus-page report was the first of its kind to concentrate on environmental
connections to cancer and, for that reason, was widely praised by environmental
organizations and health professionals alike.

The report asserts that “the true burden of environmentally induced cancers has
been grossly underestimated” (ibid., iii), which would seem to advocate for precise
steps to reduce the public’s pervasive exposure to cancer-causing agents, or
carcinogens. Particularly prominent in the report was a critique of bisphenol A
(BPA), used in plastic bottles and can linings, as well as the toxic elements radon,
formaldehyde, and benzene. “A precautionary, prevention-oriented approach should
replace current reactionary approaches to environmental contaminants in which
human harm must be proven before action is taken to reduce or eliminate
exposure,” the report warns. “This approach should be the cornerstone of a new
national cancer prevention strategy that emphasizes primary prevention” (ibid., xi).

As advocates of proactive risk reduction, we concur. With that in mind, this
chapter will examine some of those chemicals with demonstrated ties to breast
cancer, and what you can do to minimize your exposure to them.