There are several different types of breast cancer. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America explains them clearly here. There are also many possible causes of breast cancer:

* Heredity plays a role in about 15% of women who get breast cancer. In other words, if your mother, sister, or aunt had breast cancer, you’re slightly more at risk for getting it, too.

* Long-term heavy smoking is linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. You may believe that smoking only causes lung cancer. But it’s affects breast cancer as well.

* Toxic chemicals and endocrine disruptors in the environment are increasingly being linked to breast cancer and a variety of other health problems.  Endocrine disruptors are synthetic chemical compounds that mimic female hormones. They’re found in some plastics, feed that’s given to cows, and certain cosmetics and personal care products. Pesticides and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) could pose a breast cancer risk, too, says the American Cancer Society. (Here’s how you can avoid endocrine disruptors day-to-day.)

* Simply being a woman is the main risk factor for developing breast cancer. Men can contract this disease as well, but it is 100 times more common among women than men, since women have more of the hormones that promote breast cancer cell growth.

Early detection starts with you. That’s why self-exams are so important. Pick a regular day each month so it becomes a habit to give yourself a breast check-up. Here are three ways to give yourself a breast self-exam that both BreastCancer.org and the National Breast Cancer Foundation recommend:

Lying Down:

* Place a pillow under your right shoulder and put your right arm behind your head.

* Using your left hand, move the pads of your fingers around your right breast gently in small circular motions, covering the entire breast area and armpit. Use light, medium, and firm pressure.

* Squeeze the nipple; check for discharge and lumps. Repeat these steps for your left breast.

Remember: If you notice anything at all that strikes you as unusual, set up an appointment with your health care provider. She will probably ask you to come in for a clinical exam, and possibly a mammogram. If you do have breast cancer, you will have found it sooner rather than later.

In Front of a Mirror:

* Visually inspect your breasts with your arms at your sides.

* Next, raise your arms high overhead. Look for any changes in the contour, any swelling or dimpling of the skin, or changes in the nipples.

* Now, rest your palms on your hips and press firmly to flex your chest muscles. Don’t be concerned that your left and right breasts don’t exactly match; few women’s breasts do. Look for any dimpling, puckering, or changes on each breast individually.

Again, if you feel or see anything that seems unusual, make an appointment with your healthcare provider.

In the Shower:

* As the picture above shows, using the pads of your fingers, move around your entire breast in a circular pattern. Move from the outside to the center.

* Check the entire breast and armpit area. Feel for any lump, thickening, or hardened knot.

* Check both breasts around the same time each month so you become familiar with your breast tissue and will be able to recognize anything out of the ordinary.

If you notice any changes, make an appointment to see your healthcare provider immediately.

I spend a lot of time here at Big Green Purse trying to raise awareness about ways to prevent cancer by reducing our exposure to toxic chemicals and pollution. But that’s only half the battle when it comes to breast cancer.

Stay well. Check your breasts!

RELATED POSTS

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Shift Your Spending to Prevent Breast Cancer

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The post How to Do a Breast Self-Exam appeared first on Big Green Purse.

One person of every three on the planet today isn’t nearly so fortunate, according to the International Water Management Institute, because they lack reliable access to fresh water. Even here in the U.S., the federal Government Accountability Office reported in 2003 that “water managers in thirty-six states anticipate water shortages locally, regionally, or statewide within the next ten years.”

The rest of the world looks equally thirsty. By 2025, worries the Water Management Institute, all of Africa and the Middle East, and almost all of South and Central America and Asia, will either be running out of water or unable to afford its cost.

Dirty Water Kills Kids

They’ll also be contending with its safety. “Every day more children die from dirty water than HIV-AIDS, malaria, war, and accidents all put together,” says Maude Barlow, co-author of Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water. According to a 2003 survey by the European Environment Agency, nitrates, toxins, heavy metals and/or harmful microorganisms contaminate ground water in nearly every European country and former Soviet republic.

And What About Cleopatra?

There is no “new water.” We are essentially using the same water Cleopatra used 2,000 years ago. But we’re using a lot more of it:

If today is an average day, you’ll probably use about 90 gallons of water just for today – which amounts to about 107,000 gallons for the year: enough to fill your bathtub almost 3,000 times.

We use water to grow lawns, wash dishes, rinse food, shower and shave, and let the tap run when we brush our teeth. About 14 percent leaks down the drain.

Older toilets waste more clean water in a single flush than many Africans use in an entire day.

Only 1 percent of all the world’s water can be used for drinking.

Nearly 97 percent of the world’s water is salty and otherwise undrinkable. The other 2 percent is locked up in the ice caps and glaciers.

What if You’re Pregnant?

In the U.S., we count on our tap water to be safe, and for the most part it is. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets standards for approximately ninety contaminants in drinking water. Outbreaks from microbial contamination — the kind that give you a stomach ache or diarrhea — are rare, given how many people are serviced by the public drinking water system. The bigger issue revolves around chemicals that wastewater treatment facilities weren’t designed to remove. The common fertilizer ingredient nitrate, for example, can seep into drinking water through runoff from lawns, gardens, and agricultural fields, causing “blue baby syndrome” if it depletes a newborn baby’s hemoglobin. Pregnant and nursing women and the elderly should also avoid water that’s high in nitrate content.

Bottled Water is Not the Solution

Bottled water won’t be the solution. Since so much “bottled” water is actually tap water, there’s no guarantee there’ll be enough to go around. And as we’ve discussed here before, bottling water in plastic, throwaway bottles creates a whole host of environmental problems that are better left alone.

All Those Drugs, All Those Weird Fish

Pharmaceuticals — including painkillers, depression medication, and birth control drugs — and endocrine-disrupting chemicals from deodorants, shampoos, body soaps, and lotions are also roiling America’s freshwater supplies. The cumulative effect of trace amounts of these chemicals has the EPA concerned, given their links to behavioral and sexual mutations in fish, amphibians, and birds. Part of the problem is that consumers flush old and unwanted drugs down toilets or drains. Another factor is the sheer volume of pharmaceuticals and personal-care products entering our waterways. In a U.S. Geological Survey/EPA study of 139 streams in 30 states, pharmaceuticals were found in 80 percent of the samples taken.

These aren’t benign elements. According to a 2006 analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey, “previously banned compounds…such as DDT and chlordane, natural and anthropogenic hormones, herbicides, fungicides, industrial chemicals” and other compounds that might act as endocrine disrupters lead to aberrations like both male and female sex organs turning up on the same fish.

Nasty Chemicals in the Water, Learning Disabilities in Kids?

The National Academy of Sciences is worried, too. Its list of “naturally occurring and man-made contaminants in drinking water of concern to all of us” includes arsenic, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel and fireworks), copper, and methylmercury, the scourge of parents anxious about learning disabilities and developmental disorders in their kids.

What About the Oceans?

The ocean’s misfortune is also our own. Twenty percent of coral reefs and 35 percent of mangroves have been lost since 1980, along with their capacity to buffer coastal communities from storms. With nearly half the world’s cities located within 50 kilometers of a coast, people are more vulnerable than ever before to extreme weather events, like Hurricane Katrina, whose impact on New Orleans is pictured at left. Over half of the synthetic nitrogen ever used to fertilize American farmland has been applied in the last two decades. As much as 50 percent of it has run off, creating dead zones in great aquatic cauldrons like the Gulf of Mexico that make short shrift of those shrimp you like to serve for dinner. Does anyone need a reminder about the impact the oil industry has on global H2O? We’ll be learning about the devastating impact of the recent Gulf Oil Disaster for months and years to come.

Is it Hopeless?

It all depends on what we do next. We know the world’s waters are in peril. We also know there’s no way we can make more water. But we also know what to do to keep it safe. Here’s the big picture:

1) Eliminate the use of all toxic chemicals.

2) Immediately implement the water conservation strategies we’ve already invented.

3) Transition as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable resources that don’t contribute to climate change or pollute our rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans.

We know what to do.

Will we? The answer is up to us all.

The post We’re Drinking the Same Water as Cleopatra. Is It as Clean? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

But in this day and age, it seems like that’s exactly what they have to do. A new study reported in the journal Pediatrics found that very little girls are developing breasts earlier than ever before, increasing their risk of breast cancer and other health problems and subjecting them to taunts from boys that undermine their self esteem. The study’s authors say exposure to toxic chemicals like Bisphenol A (BPA), some preservatives, and additives found in plastic may be among the reasons why.

Red flags have been flying for several years about the threats toxic chemicals pose to girls’ reproductive organs. “Young girls are exposed to dozens of potentially toxic chemicals on a daily basis,” Ted Schettler, M.D., M.P.H., Science Director for the Science and Environmental Health Network, told the New York Times. “Some of these can mimic the natural hormone, estrogen. Although individually their estrogenic activity may be relatively weak, their effects are additive. In the aggregate they could be having significant health effects, including contributing to the early onset of breast development. We need a new law to evaluate chemicals and protect our children from harmful exposures.”

Efforts are underway to pass the Safe Chemicals Act, legislation that would require safety testing for chemicals used in personal care products, cleansers, kids’ toys, and other products that could damage a developing child. We should all encourage our Senators and Representatives to support it. But it could take years to pass a new law, and years more before it goes into effect.

What can you do in the meantime?

* Eat more organic food, and feed organic food to your kids, too. Yep, most of the time it costs more. But would you rather spend money on healthier milk and organic vegetables, or training bras? And honestly, if you’re still buying bottled water, now’s the time to stop and shift your spending to food that’s actually worth the price. Take a look at these “price buster” tips for more ways good food can cost you less.

* Eat less meat. Unless you’re buying organic meat, the beef, pork and poultry you’re eating and feeding your family aare probably laden with growth homones. A diet made up mostly of fruits, vegetables and whole grains is a lot healthier, overall. Just in case you’re still on the fence about this one, here are a few more advantages to limiting or eliminating meat in your diet.

* Look for BPA-free everything. Nowadays, no one should be buying anything made from plastic unless it clearly says “BPA-free” on the label. Baby bottles? Rubber duckies? Water bottles? Make-up containers? If it’s plastic and doesn’t say BPA-free don’t buy it.

* Use fewer personal care products, both for yourself and for your kids. Babies are born with perfect skin – why do we insist on slathering them with lotion? As for ourselves, most women put more than ten different products on their skin every day. While no one of these products poses an imminent threat, over time, the multiple exposures we suffer add up.  Limit what you put on yourself and your kids, and choose products that contain mostly natural plant ingredients rather than synthetic chemicals.

* Exercise, and exercise your kids. The Pediatrics study showed that early breast development was more likely in girls that were overweight. Keep your kids active. Turn off the tv and get moving!

RELATED:

Check out these tips for safe and healthy toys from WhattoExpect.com.

The post Little girls are shopping for bras when they should still be playing with Play Dough. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

I don’t remember how much milk we’d all drunk before the mistake was discovered. I do remember watching the television news reports of the incident. Over 500 contaminated Michigan farms were quarantined. Approximately 30,000 cattle, 4,500 swine, 1,500 sheep, and 1.5 million chickens were destroyed, along with over 800 tons of animal feed, 18,000 pounds of cheese, 2,500 pounds of butter, 5 million eggs, and 34,000 pounds of dried milk products.

I’ll never forget the feeling I had watching millions of gallons of milk being destroyed. But what I also came to realize was that it was far easier to get rid of that tainted milk than it was to eliminate the fire retardants that had accumulated in my body as a result of drinking it. Fire retardants – also known as PBBs – cause cancer in lab animals and are thought to be endocrine disruptors – chemicals that interfere with hormones.

How many of you are mothers? How many people have or had a mother? That’s where so many environmental concerns begin, don’t they? After all, a mother’s body is the first environment any of us experience. I remember thinking back in 1974, even though I wouldn’t have children for another 14 years, that perhaps my ability to have healthy babies had been compromised by drinking the most harmless thing in the world, a glass of milk.

Between then and now, I’ve had two children. I never had my breast milk tested for fire retardants. I never subjected my hair to analysis for heavy metals. I have not had my blood and urine examined to determine how many unnatural chemicals they contain.

But if I did, in all likelihood I’d discover a toxic soup of contaminants that I’ve been unwillingly exposed to and that now wait to surface in some kind of disease or cancer. Even worse, I would probably also discover a whole host of toxins – my personal “body burden” – that I have unwittingly passed on to my kids.

I started Big Green Purse as a way to protect ourselves from exposure to the toxins that cause our kids harm.  Given the enormity of the challenges facing government, it may be years or decades before we significantly reign in the pollution that makes us sick. We must continue to press for stronger environmental health and safety laws and regulations. But let us not forget: The way we spend our money is our first line of defense. 

As we observe this Mother’s Day, let’s renew our commitment to shifting our spending to products and services that offer the greatest health and safety benefits, not just for the planet, but for us and our children as well.

The post What’s in YOUR body, Mom? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Chances are great that our daughters will pass on to our grandchildren some of the same chemical molecules they inherited from us. The estimated age by which a daughter will purge 99 percent of the inherited chemical varies depending on the chemical. It will take a day to excrete the phthalate plasticizers that soften up cosmetics, paint and plastics, but a year to dump mercury. Our daughters will be at least teenagers but perhaps senior citizens before they’re rid of the common flame retardants and stain-proofing chemicals we pass along. They would be 166 years old before they’re free of their inherited lead.

Meanwhile, their own body burden continues to increase. According to EWG’s test results, chemicals that persist in the body were found at higher levels in mothers than daughters, showing how chemicals can build up in the body over a lifetime. Mothers had an average of 1.5 to 5.2 times more pollution than their daughters for lead, methyl mercury, brominated flame retardants, and the Teflon- and Scotchgard-related perfluorochemicals PFOA and PFOS.

The EWG study, which was done on four mothers and their daughters, found that each of the eight women’s blood or urine was contaminated with an average of 35 consumer product ingredients, including flame retardants, plasticizers, and stain-proof coatings. These mixtures of compounds found in furniture, cosmetics, fabrics, and other consumer goods, have never been tested for safety. The mothers and daughters in this study join 64 other people tested in six EWG biomonitoring programs conducted between 2000 and 2006. In total, EWG biomonitoring has found 455 different pollutants, pesticides, and industrial chemicals in the bodies or cord blood of 72 different people — including 10 newborn babies with an average of 200 chemicals in each child.

“EPA studies show that children from birth to age two are 10 times more sensitive to cancer-causing chemicals than adults,” said Jane Houlihan, EWG’s vice president for research. “Scientists have found that chemicals’ toxic effects can be passed down for four generations, by causing permanent genetic changes that can be inherited. A stew of toxic chemicals is not the legacy mothers want to hand down to their children.”

We monitor the pollution in our air, our water, and even our fish. Isn’t it time we started paying attention to the pollution in our bodies?

Related Post: What’s in YOUR body, Mom?

The post A Mother’s Day Question: What Do You Have in Common with Your Daughter…or Your Own Mother? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

*  Breast cancer strikes more women in the world than any other type of cancer except skin cancer.

* In the U.S., a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer increased steadily and dramatically during the 20th century.

* Today, a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is one in eight.

* The increasing incidence of breast cancer over the decades following World War II paralleled the proliferation of synthetic chemicals.

* An estimated 80,000 synthetic chemicals are used today in the U.S.; another 1,000 or more are added each year. Complete toxicological screening data are available for just 7 percent of these chemicals.

* Many of these chemicals persist in the environment, accumulate in body fat, and may remain in breast tissue for decades. Many have never been tested for their effects on human health.

Thanks to reduced use of hormone therapy, breast cancer rates for women over 50 may be declining.  Nevertheless, 216 chemicals and radiation sources have been linked to breast cancer and all women remain susceptible. Of particular concern are the agents known as endocrine disruptors. These are chemicals that mimic our natural endocrine system and ultimately disrupt the work it does to regulate growth, reproduction and other human health conditions.

Protect Yourself from Breast Cancer

Dr. Gray says that one important way consumers can protect themselves is to avoid products that contain endocrine disruptors like phthalates, parabens, growth hormones in meat and dairy products, and bisphenol A.

* Choose phthalate-free perfumes, soaps, shampoos, lotions and even nail polish.

* Avoid parabens. Parabens, a preservative, are being replaced by ascorbic acid.

* Eat organic food and dairy products. Cows that graze on organic feed and in free-range conditions will be free of artificial hormones.

* Skip plastic water bottles. Consumers can avoid bisphenol A by choosing stainless steel water bottles rather than hard plastic, and glass over plastic or metal cans for the food they buy.

These “big green purse” options will not only protect women individually. The way women spend their money sends a direct message to manufacturers. Saying “no” to breast cancer by choosing the safest products and services will pressure companies to say “no” to these same chemicals before they’re even added to the product.

Download a complete copy of the report here.

RELATED POSTS

The post Put Breast Cancer on Your Big Green Purse Agenda appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Those chemicals include diesel exhaust, chemicals that are put into personal care products, and plastic softeners. Of the 216 specific chemicals that cause mammary gland tumors either in animals or humans:

— 73 have been present in consumer products or as contaminants in food
— 35 are air pollutants
— 25 have been associated with occupational exposures affecting more than 5,000 women a year
— 29 are produced in the United States in amounts often exceeding 1 million pounds per year.

Fortunately, to some degree, being forewarned is forearmed. According to the study’s scientists, who included researchers at the Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts, and the Texas-based Susan G. Komen organization, limiting routine exposures — our so-called “body burden” — can  “significantly reduce the risk of cancer for many thousands of women.”

How can we protect ourselves from many of these chemicals and prevent breast cancer?

We can start by shifting our spending to products that contain less harmful ingredients, including:

• Personal care products that are free of parabens (often found in preservatives) and phthalates (often found in fragrances).
• Organic consumer products – not just fruits and vegetables, but cosmetics and body lotions and cleansers as well.
• Fuel-efficient vehicles and energy-efficient appliances to reduce the combustion of fossil fuels.

We can also minimize the number of products we use over all.

Individually and collectively, we can make a difference, and we must. Breast cancer is the largest cause of death in U.S. women in mid-life. While other risk factors — family history, age at menarche and menopause, age of first full-term pregnancy — cannot be easily avoided, chemical exposures can.

A searchable database of all 216 chemicals, including detailed information on 97 of the most widespread, is available at http://www.komen.org/environment and http://www.silentspring.org/sciencereview. The database also summarizes significant research linking breast cancer and diet, physical activity, body size, environmental pollutants and genetics.

The post Shift your Spending to Prevent Breast Cancer appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Chances are great that our daughters will pass on to our grandchildren some of the same chemical molecules they inherited from us. The estimated age by which a daughter will purge 99 percent of the inherited chemical varies depending on the chemical. It will take a day to excrete the phthalate plasticizers that soften up cosmetics, paint and plastics, but a year to dump mercury. Our daughters will be at least teenagers but perhaps senior citizens before they’re rid of the common flame retardants and stain-proofing chemicals we pass along. They would be 166 years old before they’re free of their inherited lead.

  Meanwhile, their own body burden continues to increase.  According to EWG’s test results, chemicals that persist in the body were found at higher levels in mothers than daughters, showing how chemicals can build up in the body over a lifetime. Mothers had an average of 1.5 to 5.2 times more pollution than their daughters for lead, methyl mercury, brominated flame retardants, and the Teflon- and Scotchgard-related perfluorochemicals PFOA and PFOS.

The EWG study, which was done on four mothers and their daughters, found that each of the eight women’s blood or urine was contaminated with an average of 35 consumer product ingredients, including flame retardants, plasticizers, and stain-proof coatings. These mixtures of compounds found in furniture, cosmetics, fabrics, and other consumer goods, have never been tested for safety.

The mothers and daughters in this study join 64 other people tested in six EWG biomonitoring programs conducted between 2000 and 2006. In total, EWG biomonitoring has found 455 different pollutants, pesticides, and industrial chemicals in the bodies or cord blood of 72 different people — including 10 newborn babies with an average of 200 chemicals in each child.

“EPA studies show that children from birth to age two are 10 times more sensitive to cancer-causing chemicals than adults,” said Jane Houlihan, EWG’s vice president for research. “Scientists have found that chemicals’ toxic effects can be passed down for four generations, by causing permanent genetic changes that can be inherited. A stew of toxic chemicals is not the legacy mothers want to hand down to their children.”

The findings were released a year ago this month at a briefing at the California State Capitol, but nothing has changed, either in terms of our exposure to these chemicals or the companies’ use of them. At the time, joining public health advocates and four of the mothers and daughters were Senate President Pro tem Don Perata, Sen. Deborah Ortiz and Assemblyman John Laird, authors and co-sponsor of SB 1379, a bill to establish the nation’s first state-level biomonitoring program to track pollution in people.

“We monitor the pollution in our air, our water, and even our fish. It’s time to start looking at the pollution in our bodies,” said Perata.

The post Do You Really Want Your Daughter to Look Like You? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

A new study by Environmental Working Group has found a toxic ingredient associated with birth defects of the male and female reproductive systems in the lining of over half of 97 cans of name-brand fruit, vegetables, soda and other commonly eaten canned goods.

The chemical is bisphenol A (BPA), a plastic and resin ingredient used to line metal food and drink cans. BPA is also found in plastic bottles, even baby bottles, and plastic food containers.

EWG’s lab tested nearly 28 different types of food. Chicken soup, infant formula and ravioli had BPA levels of highest concern. For 1 in 10 cans of all food tested, and 1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government’s traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals. Pregnant women and formula-fed infants may be at particular risk if they’re eating or drinking canned foods or beverages.

BPA is associated with several health problems and diseases that are increasing among Americans, including breast and prostate cancer and infertility. Given that almost 20% of our diet comes from canned food, the issue is not one we can afford to ignore.

What to do?

* Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

* Buy pre-packaged food in glass jars, not cans.

* Eat a varied diet, reducing the amount of canned food overall.

* Breast-feed children as long as possible; use powdered formula rather than pre-mixed formula from a can.

* BPA is often found in #7 polycarbonate plastic.  Choose #1,2 or 4 plastic instead. Never microwave in plastic, especially food for kids. Use ceramic, glass or microwavable dishware.

* Use baby bottles made from glass, polyethylene or polypropylene plastic.

* Throw out old, scratched plastic bottles or food containers.

* Replace plastic wrap with paper, cloth, glass or stainless steel.

For more recommendations, read the full Environmental Working Group study.

The post Fresh Food Wins Again appeared first on Big Green Purse.