Alarming Rates of Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates in Women: Surviorship Our Goal

Environmental Law

Prof. Dr Derreck Skeete

Proposal: Alarming Rates of Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates In Women: Surviorship Our Goal

        Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality rates are increasingly high in the United States of America One in every three women will develop breast cancer and one in every three would die from it. . This proposal is to bring awarenes of these alarmiing statistis and to  garner support to implement stricter mesures and laws to decrease breast cancer incidence and minimize mortality rates. The goal is to limit breast cancer incidence and to increase survivorship rates. In our society women are considered as vulnerable because of  socio economic reasons, as a result they are at a greater risk for  sucumbing tp diseases. Breast cancer incidence and mortality   rates within this group needs to be addressed from the Federal, State and Local governments. Evan Kantrowitz suggests Iin his artile “ The Potential Role of Environmental Risk Factors” that the poor are “most likely not only to the worst air quality ,the most noise, lowest quality housing and shools but of particular concern onsequence also to lower quality environmenton a wide array of mulpille dimensions”. These particular “dimensions” embodies  age race and gender and socio economic status.  In  referene to breast caner inident and mortality these specific areas will be addressed in this proposal.

         In the year 2002 in an NBCI article Recent Trends in Breast Cancer Incident and Mortality, Lacy Dressa and Brinton reports that breast cancer accounts for one-third of Cancer diagnosis and 15% of cancer deaths in the U 0f 192,000 cases and 40,000 deaths in 2001 makes it the most common incident cancer excluding skin cancers and the second leading cause of cancer deaths. The  life time risk of developing ancer approximately 12.3 % of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives 2009-1011 prevalene of breast cancer in 2011 estimated 2,2899,726 living with cancer in  United States. In a NBCI report Breast Cancer epidemology and Risk Factors(2013) Graham  reveal that over 182,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually in the US accounting for2 6% of the incident of cancer anong women.  The same article shows that breast cancer is the  second leading cause of cancer deaths after lung cancer.the life time risk of dying of breast aner is3.4perent.  .  National  Cancer Institute reports estimated new ases and deaths from breast cancer in US in 2014 new ases 232,670 females 14.0% of all new ases and estimated deaths in 2014 40,000 6.8% of caner deaths. Number of new casas of breast aner was 124.6 per 100,000 women per year. Nember of deaths was 22.2 per 1000,00  women per year over a five year period.  Most frequently diagnosd between median age 55-64,  68 being the median age.Women of Afrian Amerian anestry is identified in many studies as having the hghest breast cancer inident rates and moortality rates as ompared to their peers  the number of deaaths per 100,000 persons of rate is 36.6 % African amerian women according to Gaines black women in the mid west  account for Acorrding to SEER survival rates from breast cancer at all ages of diagnoses compared to white women. From 1975 to 2000 inident rate rose 22% for younger black women compared with 10% among younger white women.

        In order to adequately express the proposal we must address the significant environmental factors that institute breast cancer. While addressing prevalent environmental factors in this proposal, awareness and preventative measures must also be adopted. Educating the public is detrimentally important because it can help reduce breast cancer incident and mortality rates. Unfortunately, some environmental factors are socioeconomically connected which makes it arduous and challenging to combat.  

        Socioeconomic status (SES) is generally  expressed as the social standing or class of an individual or group. (SES) often reveals inequalities in access to resources, privileges, power, and control. When we question why is breast cancer incident rates and mortality rates are increasingly higher amongst African American woman of any racial or ethnic group in the World; we have to take a look at the socioeconomic status of the women (Happe, Kelly E. 2006). One explanation for this disparity is that environmental risk factors such as diet, reproductive history, environmental racism, lack of access to medical care and unequal treatment by physicians and medical care specialists result in disparities in disease incidence and outcomes (Happe, Kelly E. 2006).

         Obtaining a healthy and nutritious diet can  reduce the risk of breast cancer tremendously. In a recent publication “Early Intake Appears to Be the Key to the Proposed Protective Effects of Soy Intake Against Breast Cancer” by Mark Messina and Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, evidence of their study suggest that childhood and/ or adolescence is the period of life when breast is most sensitive to dietary influences. In essence, what is consumed as a child can be a factor in the development of breast cancer as the child reaches adult hood. In addition, a child’s immune and endocrine system is at its most sensitive and receptive state. This is because of the cells aren’t fully developed to where it can’t fight off most diseases as the adult immune system can. Therefore, resulting in the child’s immune system being prone to more virus and diseases. In this study the consumption of soy during childhood and/ or at adolescence periods of a child’s life greatly increses the chances of that child developing breast cancer as an adult.

        In addition to soy in take, contaminated drinking water is also a factor in breast caner incident and mortality rates.  Contaminates such as chlorination by-products are disinfectants that are added to drinking to help prevent water born illnesses. Chlorine is the most used disinfectant in the United States. It is noted that approximately 75% of the nations drinking water contains chlorination(Doyle, Timothy J. 1997). Chlorine can be found in most municipal water supplies.

        Some of these by-products contain volatile organic compounds, such as the trihalomethanes, which is formed by the reaction of chlorine with organic acid precursors present in raw water (Doyle, Timothy J. 1997). Studies also concluded that groundwater, which is water that natural occurs from wells, contain less chlorine then that of surface water. Surface water is water that is found above the earth’s surface, such as creeks, rivers, lakes, and streams. Surface water can be easily contaminated by rainwater runoff from houses, industrial environments, roads and parking lots. These contaminates were generated form fertilizers and pestisides from lawn care, auto shops and industrial plants. And because of the negligent actions drinking water becomes contaminated.