Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Volume 17, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17020493
Keywords
environment; breast cancer risk; empowerment
Funding
- National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI) [R01CA170851, R01CA192914, U01CA189283, R01CA220693, 3U01CA189283-S1, P30CA033572, P20 CA24619]
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During puberty, a woman's breasts are vulnerable to environmental damage (window of vulnerability). Early exposure to environmental carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and unhealthy foods (refined sugar, processed fats, food additives) are hypothesized to promote molecular damage that increases breast cancer risk. However, prospective human studies are difficult to perform and effective interventions to prevent these early exposures are lacking. It is difficult to prevent environmental exposures during puberty. Specifically, young women are repeatedly exposed to media messaging that promotes unhealthy foods. Young women living in disadvantaged neighborhoods experience additional challenges including a lack of access to healthy food and exposure to contaminated air, water, and soil. The purpose of this review is to gather information on potential exposures during puberty. In future directions, this information will be used to help elementary/middle-school girls to identify and quantitate environmental exposures and develop cost-effective strategies to reduce exposures.
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