The scare campaigners often neglect the task of telling women how they can reduce risk through life-style choices. Either you have this genetic curse or you don't. If your mom or grandma had breast cancer, then you probably also have the bad gene, so you're in for trouble too. Women exposed to this kind of talk from doctors or other health personnel should ask a few questions. Ask if the epidemiological research involving the alleged genetic connection actually controlled for grandma's life style.
Tobacco use associated with lung cancer is a prominent example.
This viewpoint does not rule out the possibility that some may possess a genetic advantage in resisting the effect of the toxins, but genes are not seen as the causal agent. The problem with the toxicology approach is that its wide acceptance would be politically unfeasible for the ruling interests of U.S. society. Industrial corporations and military organizations which pollute the environment would be seen as culpable. Further, drug manufacturers and medical enterprises engaged in surgery have far less to gain by focusing blame for cancer on toxins. Although doctors deliver the results of diagnostic tests with God-like authority, there is a substantial body of health science literature devoted to the measurement of error rates.