PRESS RELEASE – embargoed until 6am Tuesday 23 June 2015
Fifty chemicals commonly found in the environment
may trigger cancer when combined at low-doses.
Breast Cancer UK welcomes new research published today which
focuses attention on the links between exposures to mixtures of
common chemicals, and the development of cancer.
The research published by a global taskforce of 174 scientists from leading
research centres across 28 countries was initiated by the Canadian based
organisation, Getting To Know Cancer led by Leroy Lowe and will be published
in a special series of Oxford University Publishing’s “Carcinogenesis” journal on
Tuesday 23 June.
Lynn Ladbrook, Chief Executive of Breast Cancer UK explains, “This research
supports previous studies that suggest it is the mixture of chemicals to which
we are exposed that is the problem – not just the amount of a single chemical
in isolation. We can no longer assume that just because our exposure to an
individual chemical is very low, it must be safe. This fundamentally changes
the way chemicals should be tested and evaluated for safety.
Breast Cancer UK fully endorse the global task force’s call for increased
research into low dose exposures and chemical mixtures, and their impact on
cancer risk. We strongly urge the UK Government to support this initiative.
Sadly, this call for more research comes at a time when UK cancer research
funding into environmental exposures has fallen to its lowest level since 2002
(2). If, as current estimates suggest, up to 1 in 5 cancers are due to chemical
exposures, it is incumbent on us to do all we can to identify and act to limit
those exposures of most concern. “
Full details of the research can be found here:
http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/Suppl_1
Breast Cancer UK Contacts:
Lynn Ladbrook, Chief Executive - 07786 393181
Louise Bowers, Communications Manager - 07930 854 527
Notes to Editors
1. Breast Cancer UK works to save lives and reduce breast cancer rates by
tackling the environmental and chemical causes of the disease.
For more information on how to reduce your risk, or how harmful
chemicals are linked to breast cancer please visit our website:
www.breastcanceruk.org.uk
2. Funding statistics sourced from NCRI Cancer Research Database. NCRI
has been collecting cancer research funding data since 2002, to
understand how money is spread across the various areas of research,
and identify any gaps.
www.ncri.org.uk/what-we-do/research-database
3. For more information or to arrange an interview with members of the
research team involved in the report, please contact Gillian Trevethan at
Brunel University
Email: gillian.trevethan@brunel.ac.uk / 01895 266599