Environmental risk for breast cancer is focus of new BCERF web site

By Roger Segelken

Science-based information on the relationships between breast cancer and environmental risk factors -- including pesticides and dietary factors -- is offered at a Cornell-based web site: www.cfe.cornell.edu/bcerf/.

Arriving during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the web site from the Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors in New York State (BCERF) has been expanded with several features:

· Information on what women can do right now to reduce their risk of breast cancer, including risk-reduction messages on the "4Es," eating, exposure, exercise and exams. Using the 4Es as a guide, browsers can access more in-depth material, such as information on endocrine disrupting chemicals, how diet affects breast cancer risk, the benefits of exercise and how to find out about breast cancer screening.

· Improved breast cancer incidence and mortality maps for the state of New York. This feature provides users with maps and tables of breast cancer rates, based on statistics from the New York State Department of Health.

Among the most-used features of the BCERF web site are the "critical evaluations, which are written by BCERF scientists who review recent scientific research on the possible relationships between breast cancer and environmental chemicals. The agricultural chemicals alachlor and phosmet, for example, are subjects of two of the newest critical evaluations. BCERF's evaluation of the widely used herbicide atrazine was cited as a resource by the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, the information is not just for policymakers and other scientists, BCERF director Rodney Dietert emphasizes. "Our key 'audience' always has been consumers -- the women and men of all ages and backgrounds who need to know about the connection between environmental risk factors and breast cancer," said Dietert, who also is a professor of immunotoxicology at Cornell. "We aim to make our material accessible to a diverse audience of consumers, educators and news media representatives, as well as to scientists and policymakers."

And although the BCERF program began in New York state, it has become a national and international resource. BCERF is a multidisciplinary program, based at the Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology in Cornell's Center for the Environment.