Why are more and more of us getting breast cancer?
The No More Breast Cancer campaign wants the link between breast cancer and everyday exposure to toxic chemicals taken seriously.
Breast cancer cases have hit a new record, recently released official figures reveal.
Yet fewer than 50% of cases are attributed to acknowledged ‘risk’ factors – age, obesity, late-age pregnancy, late onset menopause.
The focus of the No More Breast Cancer campaign is on the link between breast cancer and everyday exposure to toxic chemicals.
In the UK, to date, government, industry and mainstream cancer organisations have refuted this possibility.
We argue that lifelong, low-level exposure to the cocktail of hundreds of toxics and hormone-disruptors in our everyday lives – from pesticide residues in food to chemicals in consumer products and in the workplace – is linked to ever-rising rates of the disease.
As part of this, we want the British government to mark a new approach by ensuring the substitution of all carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting chemicals with safer alternatives, as soon as they are available.
In the environment
100,000 man-made chemicals are polluting our environment. 500 man-made chemicals are thought to disrupt the hormones in our body and mimic the role of oestrogen – a hormone closely linked with the development of breast cancer.In our bodies
At least 300 man-made chemicals have been found in human blood and body tissue. Cancer-causing substances and hormone-disrupting chemicals are included in this ‘toxic burden’.
45,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
Over 12,400 women die every year from breast cancer.
In women aged 35-54 years, breast cancer is the most common cause of all deaths, accounting for 17% of all deaths.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women under 35 in the UK.
The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer in women is 1 in 9.
Get informed - support our campaign
To add your name to our register of supporters click here.This campaign message is supported by the following:
- Cancer Prevention and Education Society
- Green Party
- Health & Environment Alliance
- Scottish Breast Cancer Campaign
- Soil Association
- UK Public Health Association
- Unison
- Women in Europe for a Common Future
- Women’s Environmental Network
- Women’s Environmental Network, Scotland
- WWF
Disclaimers: This website in no way claims to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject of breast cancer or breast cancer prevention. Inclusion of website addresses does not imply an endorsement of all the opinions expressed therein.