'Estrogen Soup' linked to Breast Cancer in Mice
16 July 2005 From New Scientist Print Edition.
LONG-TERM exposure to oestrogen-like chemicals might increase the risk of breast cancer in women with a genetic predisposition to the disease. "For people who are susceptible, breast cancer might be sped up," says William Baldwin of the University of Texas in El Paso.
For nine months his team fed a chemical called 4-nonylphenol, which is found in drinking water, processed foods, plastics and paints, to mice with a mutation that makes them susceptible to breast cancer. Five out of the 13 mice fed a high dose of the substance developed breast cancer, compared with none of the 14 fed a lower dose and only one out of the 14 mice fed honey (Journal of Applied Toxicology, DOI: 10.10002/jat.1078).
"It was a little more potent than we thought," says Baldwin. Although the dose is probably higher than most people are exposed to, Baldwin thinks that other environmental oestrogens, such as bisphenol A, are likely to have a similar effect, so there is cause for concern about their cumulative long-term effects. "We are exposed to a soup of oestrogens," he says.