Cleansing products increase the risk of breast cancer

According to a study published in the July issue of Environmental Health, women who have been exposed to a lot of detergents are at a higher risk of breast cancer than those who use less.

Dr. Julia Brody and colleagues at the US Silent Spring Research Institute conducted an interview experiment for 787 women diagnosed with breast cancer and a comparison group of 721 women without the disease.

Photos are for illustrative purposes only.

Participants must answer questions about the use of detergents, knowledge of the causes of breast cancer and other risk factors.

The results showed that people exposed to the most detergents were twice as likely to develop breast cancer than those who used the least. Using room aroma chemicals or fungicides also increases the risk of developing the disease.

Previously, American scientists at the University of Texas also found that a chemical found in textiles, detergents, and plastics called 4-nonylphenol could stimulate breast cancer development. in the mouse.

Nonylphenol substance group mimics the activity of female sex hormones estrogen in the body. In particular, when in the liver, it stimulates an enzyme mechanism that increases the production of homologous hormone called estriol. Both estrogen and estriol are directly related to breast cancer.

In the study, Dr. William Baldwin and colleagues compared the effects of 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) and estrogen in some genetically modified mice at different doses. After 32 weeks, many of the 4-NP infected mice developed breast cancer, while those exposed to estrogen were safe.