Cancers, and environmental

When it comes to your unborn child, it s smart to be suspicious and start living a little more defensively. Since World War II, at least 75,000 new synthetic chemical compounds have been developed and released into the environment. (To find out how toxic your hometown is, go to Scorecard.org and type in your ZIP code. Very satisfying—if you happen to live in Marin County, California.) In her amazing book Living Downstream, ecologist, author, and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber offers a wealth of evidence linking cancer and environmental contamination. 

Wolf MS, et al. (1996) Breast cancer and environmental risk factors Epidemiological and experimental findings. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology 36 573-596. 

One point of agreement was that the draft toxicological profile presents a very selective review of the current literature on breast cancer and environmental contaminants one panelist noted that the profile omits a recent study that found no association between PCB serum concentrations and breast cancer (Helzlsouer et al., 1999). 

On moving to the United States he spent 5 years at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and 7 years at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where he was involved with cancer and environmental research, respectively. He moved to the University of California, Irvine in 1992 where he has been particularly interested in the use of open access mass spectrometry to enable scientists lacking experience in the technique to facilitate their research by obtaining mass spectrometric data rapidly on a 24/7 basis. He has over 80 pubUcations. 

The accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) plant in Pennsylvania in 1979 led to many safety and environmental improvements (4—6). No harm from radiation resulted to TMI workers, to the pubHc, or to the environment (7,8), although the accident caused the loss of a 2 x 10 investment. The accident at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine in 1986, on the other hand, caused the deaths of 31 workers from high doses of radiation, increased the chance of cancer later in life for thousands of people, and led to radioactive contamination of large areas. This latter accident was unique to Soviet-sponsored nuclear power. The Soviet-designed Chemobyl-type reactors did not have the intrinsic protection against a mnaway power excursion that is requited in the test of the world, not was there a containment building (9—11). 

W. C. Hueper, Occupational and Environmental Cancers of the Urinary System, Yale University Press, New Haven, Coim., 1969, p. 216. 

Effects of indoor air pollutants on humans are essentially the same as those described in Chapter 7. However, there can be some additional pollutant exposures in the indoor environment that are not common in the ambient setting. From the listing in Table 23-1, radon exposures indoors present a radiation hazard for the development of lung cancer. Environmental tobacco smoke has been found to cause lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. Biological agents such as molds and other toxins may be a more likely exposure hazard indoors than outside. 

Kim, I.Y., Han, S.Y., and Kang, T.S. et al. (2005). Pyrethroid insecticides, fenvalerate and permethrin, inhibit progesterone-induced alkaline phosphatase activity in T47D human breast cancer cells. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health—Part A—Current Issues 68, 2175-2186. 

Parker GS, Rosen SL. 1981. Cancer incidence and environmental hazards 1960-1978. Massachusetts Department of Public Health. 

Carcinogenic agents include chemicals in the environment, such as aniline and benzene, which are associated with the development of bladder cancer and leukemia, respectively. Environmental factors, such as excessive sun exposure, also may result in cancer. Viruses, including the human papilloma virus and hepatitis B, maybe associated with the development of cancer. Some of the chemotherapy agents cause secondary cancers after therapy has been completed. Numerous factors may contribute to the development of cancer. 

The etiology of breast cancer is unknown, but a number of factors that increase a woman s chances of developing the disease have been identified. These risk factors, as well as information regarding the biology of the disease, suggest that a complex interplay between hormones, genetic factors, and environmental and lifestyle influences all contribute to the etiology of this disease. 

Ovarian cancer is associated with certain dietary and environmental factors as well. A diet that is high in galactose and animal fat and meat increases the risk of ovarian cancer, whereas a vegetable-rich diet is suggested to decrease risk.4,8 Although controversial, exogenous factors such as asbestos and talcum powder use on the perineal area also have been suggested to increase the risk of ovarian cancer.4,8... 

Cancer occurs when the growth and function of cells are out of control in relation to normal tissue. The combination of genetic alterations and environmental toxins is the most frequent contributor to the process of carcinogenesis. In the development of skin cancer, the risk factors are categorized as environmental (solar UV radiation), genetic (family history), immunosuppression, and previous history of melanoma.10... 

Mehlman MA. 1991. Dangerous and cancer-causing properties of products and chemicals in the oil refining and petrochemical industry Part VI—human health and environmental hazards resulting from oil and oil products. Journal of Clean Technology and Environmental Sciences 1 103-121. 

The human and environmental protection goals in EUSES are human populations (workers, consumers, and man exposed via the environment) and ecological systems (micro-organisms in sewage treatment systems, aquatic ecosystems, terrestrial ecosystems, sediment ecosystems, and predators). Repeated dose toxicity, fertility toxicity, maternal toxicity, developmental toxicity, carcinogenic risk, and lifetime cancer risk can be calculated for the cases that literature data is available. 

U.S. EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 1987. Special Report on Ingested Inorganic Arsenic Skin Cancer and Nutritional Essentiality. U.S. EPA, Risk Assessment Forum. Wash., D.C. 

---