Scientists advice - stop using pesticides!
http://www.topcancernews.com/news/544/1/Scientists-advice---stop-using-pesticides!
Published on Today

Nearly a decade ago, women in Long Island began to worry about their
high rates of breast cancer. So they advocated and lobbied and pushed
until a public law was passed that allowed for the creation of the Long
Island Breast Cancer Project. Funded by both the National Cancer
Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,
great data has emerged from this project -- like the data linking
breast cancer and household pesticides.

Although much research has linked cancer with pesticides in work and
industrial settings, few studies have investigated what these chemicals
can do in households -- until now, thanks to research conducted as part
of The Long Island Breast Cancer Project.

Published online in the December 13 American Journal of Epidemiology,
researchers found an association between lifetime residential pesticide
use and breast cancer risk in a sample of 1,508 Long Island women
diagnosed with breast cancer between 1996 and 1997. These women were
compared to 1,556 random controls. All women were asked to self-report
their pesticide exposure and to offer blood samples for the study of
organochlorine compound levels -- found in lawn and garden products.

As expected, researchers found an increased breast cancer risk for
women whose blood samples showed the highest levels of organochlorine
compounds. They also found it hard to find women who did not use lawn
and garden pesticides to some degree.

Use of household pesticides has infiltrated our society, says
researcher Susan Teitelbaum, assistant professor in the department of
community medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who
reports she is happy to see a movement toward use of alternative
methods, like integrated pest management.

Teitelbaum has just one recommendation as result of this study. It's
quite simple really -- stop using pesticides.

http://tinyurl.com/38w5q6