点击显示 收起
July 20, 2010 -- Frequent use of household cleaning products may boost breast cancer risk, according to a new study that drew criticism from medical experts and the cleaning industry.
Air fresheners and products to control mold and mildew were particularly linked, says researcher Julia Brody, PhD, executive director of the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, Mass., who led the study.
It is published in the journal Environmental Health.
The study is believed to be the first published report linking household cleaning products and breast cancer risk. "Many laboratory studies led us to be concerned about particular compounds in cleaning products and air fresheners," Brody tells WebMD.
While Brody sees a link, others are not convinced. ''What this study really shows is, when a study relies on people's memory of their exposure, and people are concerned about that exposure, you don't get reliable answers," says Michael Thun, MD, vice president emeritus of epidemiology for the American Cancer Society.
Brody and her co-researchers conducted telephone interviews with 787 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and 721 women who did not have breast cancer. "We asked women about past use of cleaning products -- in the past year, their typical use," Brody says.
''For pesticide use, we asked about use in houses they lived in in the past," she says.
''We found links [to breast cancer] for combined cleaning products used -- many different products taken together -- and air fresheners and mold and mildew control products."
The strongest link, she says, is looking at all cleaning products combined. "For combined cleaning product use, the risk is about twice as high [for breast cancer] for women who said they used the most compared to women who said they used the least."
Insect repellent use seemed to be linked, Brody says, but there was very little association found between other pesticides and breast cancer risk.
Specifying exactly how much exposure to the products may raise risk is difficult, she says. For combined products use, women were divided into four groups; those in the fourth group, who used the most, had about twice the risk as those in the group that used the least.
For solid air fresheners, for instance, those who used it seven or more times a year had twice the risk of breast cancer as those who never used it.
Brody also found that women who had breast cancer and thought that chemicals and pollutants contribute much to cancer risk were more likely to report high use of cleaning products. But Brody isn't sure what's driving what -- whether women who get breast cancer then begin to wonder if cleaning products played a role, or other factors.
When studies look at data from the past -- what scientists call retrospective studies -- and ask people to rely on their memories, "the results aren't going to be interpretable," says Thun, who reviewed the study findings for WebMD.