Calif. Urges Study of Alarming Breast Cancer Rates SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Faced with an alarming and unexplained rise in new breast cancer cases, California officials called on Wednesday for a pilot program to monitor breast milk for signs that environmental contamination plays in a role in the spread of the deadly disease. "When women in America today are getting breast cancer at a rate that is three times the rate of 50 years ago, something is seriously wrong," state Assemblyman Dario Frommer said at a special joint meeting of the legislature's health committees. "We need to take a hard look at what is causing this surge in cancer and what we can do to reverse this trend." Frommer and state Senator Deborah Ortiz said they planned to introduce legislation early next year which would make California the first state in the nation to embark on a program to monitor breast milk for chemical contaminants -- hoping to draw a link between such everyday products as pesticides, fuels, plastics and detergents and increasing numbers of breast cancer patients in the state. Breast cancer rates across the country have increased steadily in recent years, with the risk of a woman contracting the disease at some point during her life now at 1-in-8, against 1-in-22 just 50 years ago. Northern California in particular has seen breast cancer diagnoses skyrocket. In the San Francisco Bay area, a woman's chance of contracting breast cancer is now 1-in-7. [10/24/2002; Reuters News Service] San Francisco Chronicle excerpt, 3/12/03 J Occup & Env Med, 4/03 British J Nutrition, 8/07 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.