Breast Cancer and Chlorine SOURCE: BREAST CANCER FUND 2007 |
Life as we know it is carbon-based, meaning our bodies and their processes revolve around biochemical processes that involve carbon and carbon-based compounds. Compounds that contain carbon as their basic structure are called organic compounds and they have the potential to interact with and affect carbon-based life.
Organochlorines are a class of more than 11,000 chemicals that are persistent in the environment, reactive with human tissues, and often associated with cancer. Within the organochlorine family is a large group of endocrine disruptors that interfere with the normal function of hormones. With regard to breast cancer, endocrine disruptors mimic estrogen and have made human breast cancer cells multiply in experimental settings. In addition, a number of endocrine disruptors have been shown to cause mammary tumors in rats. Organochlorines are ubiquitous in our lives. Consider plastic products of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) that release dioxin, a known carcinogen, into the substances they touch and into our air and water during the production process, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used in electrical transformers. The most infamous organochlorine, DDT, was widely used as an insecticide to control mosquitoes carrying malaria from the 1940s until its ban in 1972. Only through Rachel Carson's persistence did we begin to understand the ecological devastation caused by DDT. In the 1970s, organochlorines turned the towns of Love Canal and Times Beach into toxic waste sites. Source: Living Downstream, Sandra Steingraber, (1997) Addison-Wesley pp.114-115 NOTE: Although DDT and PCBs were banned in the 1970s, they persist in our bodies. Dioxins, PCBs, DDT and other organochlorines are among the 200 chemicals found in human breast milk today. Take action to keep chlorine and other dangerous chemicals out of your body and the environment: Breast Cancer Fund, 2007
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