Workers
While more research is needed to understand how occupation and breast cancer risk are linked, we do know that your work environment can affect your risk of breast cancer. For example, certain occupations expose workers to high levels of toxic chemicals and radiation.
Women make up nearly half the workforce in the United States, but very little research has explored work-related exposures and breast cancer. Much of the research that has been conducted reports risk by job title rather than by actual environmental exposures, which limits our ability to associate exposures and health outcomes.
Despite these gaps, research does indicate higher risk of breast cancer among women in some occupations.[1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7] These include women who work with toxic chemicals like organic solvents, including chemists, hair dressers, paper-mill workers,[8] autoworkers and microelectronics workers; and women who work with or around ionizing radiation, including dental hygienists and radiology technicians.[9] Other groups disproportionately affected include school teachers, librarians, social workers and journalists, though the reasons are yet to be understood.
In many cases, there are even fewer labeling requirements for institutional products like industrial cleaners and professional hair products than there are for consumer products, putting workers at greater risk.
Biomonitoring to measure the chemicals in women's bodies may help to identify work-related exposures that increase breast cancer risk. But even this research may not be able to separate worker exposures in industrial settings from the risk of living near polluting industrial sites.[10] And women with different ethnic and racial backgrounds, genetic profiles and/or life histories may be affected differently by workplace exposures. A recent study on breast cancer in radiology technicians found that genes that influence how the body makes and uses estrogen may affect how much their work-related estrogen exposures affect breast cancer risk.[11]
- Thompson D, Kriebel D, Quinn MM, et al. Occupational exposure to metalworking fluids and risk of breast cancer among female autoworkers. Am J Ind Med. 2005;47:153-60.
- Band PR, Le ND, Fang R, et al. Identification of occupational cancer risks in British Columbia: a population-based case-control study of 995 incident breast cancer cases by menopausal status, controlling for confounding factors. J Occup Environ Med. 2000;42:284-310.
- Goldberg MS, Labreche F. Occupational risk factors for female breast cancer: A review. Occup Environ Med. 1996;53(3):145-56.
- Zheng T, Holford TR, Taylor Mayne S, et al. A case-control study of occupation and breast-cancer risk in Connecticut. J Cancer Epidemiol Prev. 2002;7:3-11.
- Teitelbaum SL, Britton JA, Gammon MD, et al. Occupation and breast cancer in women 20–44 years of age. Cancer Causes Control. 2003;14:627-37.
- Hansen J. Breast cancer risk among relatively young women employed in solvent-using industries. Am J Indust Med. 1999; 36:43-47.
- Morton WE. Major differences in breast cancer risks among occupations. J Occup Environ Med. 1995;37:328-335.
- Morin-Doody M, Lonstein JE, Stovall M, Hacker DG, Luckyanov N, Land CE (2000). Breast cancer mortality after diagnostic radiography: Findings from the U.S. Scoliosis Cohort Study. Spine 25: 2052-2063.
- Simon SL, Weinstock RM, Doody MM, Neton J, Wenzl T, Stewart P et al. (2006). Estimating historical radiation doses to a cohort of U.S. radiologic technologists. Radiation Research 166: 174-192.
- Brody JG, Moysich KB, Humblet O, Attfield KR, Beehler GP, Rudel RA (2007). Environmental pollutants and breast cancer: Epidemiologic studies. Cancer. 109(12 Suppl):2667-711
- Sigurdson AJ, Bhatti P, Chang S et al (2009). Polymorphisms in estrogen biosynthesis and metabolism-related genes, ionizing radiation exposure, and risk of breast cancer among US radiologic technologists. Breast Cancer Research Treatment 118:177-184.
