Cadmium linked to breast cancer

The Capital Times ^ | June 23, 2006 | Anita Weier

[neverdem]

UW study finds higher risk

University of Wisconsin researchers have linked high levels of cadmium in the body to a higher risk of breast cancer.

The findings show that the toxic heavy metal may be a factor, but more study is necessary, said Jane McElroy, Ph.D., lead author of the study at the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study did not prove that cadmium causes breast cancer, she said, but it did show that women with the top 25 percent of cadmium levels had twice the breast cancer risk of women in the lowest 25 percent of cadmium levels.

The study involved 246 women with confirmed breast cancer and 254 women without the disease. Urine samples were taken because urine indicates lifetime cadmium exposure. Participants also were interviewed about known risk factors for breast cancer including family history, not having children, alcohol consumption, obesity and current use of oral contraceptives.

After controlling for such risk factors, the researchers found the link between cadmium exposure and breast cancer risk.

"We think there is an increased risk for cadmium exposure," she said.

But the study could not prove if the association reflected the effect of cadmium on tumor development and growth, or effects of treatment or the disease itself on cadmium levels, she explained.

Cadmium accumulates in the body and is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen.

People may be exposed to it in the workplace where cadmium products such as batteries are made, but the women in the study were not exposed in that way, she said.

Cigarette smoke is also a source of cadmium, and some foods are high in the substance. "The big hitters are the liver and kidney, the organ meats," McElroy said. "Pollution deposits cadmium on soil and it goes into plants. A cow eats grass and cadmium goes into the body and is stored in the kidney and liver."

Leafy vegetables are also a source, she said.

But the amount of cadmium depends on where the food was grown and what the soil contained, she stressed.

"Used batteries are the biggest source in the atmosphere if they are burned or deposited in landfills. Cadmium is used to stabilize plastics as well," McElroy said.

The federal government regulates cadmium in water, with a limit of five parts per billion. "But most of the literature suggests that in Wisconsin there is remarkable little exposure from water," she said.

The findings of the study were published in the June 21 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[GSlob]

Not a good stuff. Even mercury is a bit better.

[syriacus]

Leafy vegetables are also a source, she said.

I guess "hydroponic" lettuce is okay?