Many studies of various toxins conclude that either more research is needed or that certain chemicals cannot be shown to cause specific diseases. Such is the case with a large report issued last July by four federal health agencies looking at links between breast cancer and the environment. The report said there is no evidence that chemicals called organochlorines, commonly used as pesticides, cause breast cancer, according to six studies of nearly 16,000 women on the East Coast. Results of other environmental breast cancer studies, including a highly publicized one among women on Long Island, N.Y., are expected to be released later this year or early next year. But the report also pointed out that research still is needed, and that environmental ties are hard to establish, given the long time it takes many types of cancer to develop.
Some chemicals also leave no detectable trace elements in the human body.
Davis says she'll address problems with environmental health research in her speech tonight, as well as point out prevention strategies. What's important about the environment is whatever part of cancer it does explain, it's something we can do something about. We can't go back and pick different parents or change what we ate 30 years ago. But we can get toxins out of our schools and communities. We need to do it together.