A new study pointed out that using house-hold cleaning products increases breast cancer.
Brody and her co-researchers conducted telephone interviews with 787 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and 721 women who didn’t have breast cancer. “We asked women about past use of cleaning products in the past year, their typical use,” Brody explained.
Air fresheners and mold/mildew controlling products were connected to increasing breast cancer, Julia Brody, PhD, executive director of the Silent Spring Institute, Newton Massachusetts. She led the study.
“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,” she continued.
“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.”
Listing exactly how much of exposure could raise risk is difficult to say, she admitted.
“This is a first look and there are cautions about interpreting it,” Brody said.
The article is published in the journal Environmental health.
