Continuous exposure to toxic chemicals at work escalates the risk of developing breast cancer, a team of researchers say.
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among women in the U.S. In the country, nearly 226,870 women are affected with invasive breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
Dr. James Brophy and Dr. Margaret Keith from the University of Stirling's Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group (OEHRG) initiated to re-confirm previous findings that linked breast cancer to chemical exposure at workplaces.
"Breast cancer causality is complex. It is believed to result from a combination of factors including genetic, hormonal and lifestyle influences as well as environmental exposures," Dr. Brophy said in a news release. "However, studies have shown that breast cancer incidence rose throughout the developed world during in the second half of the twentieth century as women entered industrial workplaces and many new and untested chemicals were being introduced. Diverse and concentrated exposures to carcinogens and hormone disrupting chemicals in some workplaces can put workers at an increased risk for developing cancer."
For analyzing the association, researchers included 1,006 breast cancer patients and compared them with 1,146 women without the disease. They found women who were highly exposed to a 'toxic soup' of chemicals at the workplace for 10 years having a 42 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer when compared to others.
Women employed in different occupational sectors like farming, plastics, food tinning, metalworking, bars, casino and racecourses were found to possess higher risks of breast cancer compared to women working in other sectors.
"Many workers face multiple exposures to chemicals, not only from their employment, but from their everyday environment. Many of the women included in the study were exposed to a virtual 'toxic soup' of chemicals. Untangling work and wider factors in the possible causes of breast cancer is an important global issue," professor Andrew Watterson, head of the OEHRG at Stirling, explained.
The study is published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health.
Millions of workers in the U.S. are exposed to cancer-causing and endocrine disrupting chemicals regularly at workplaces. According to CDC, between four and 10 percent (48,000 cases) of cancers diagnosed in a year are caused by occupational exposures.
