Links Between Breast Cancer and the Environment 
CBS/The Early Show 24may01
ANCHORS: JANE CLAYSON

REPORTERS: Dr. EMILY SENAY

BODY: Announcer: THE EARLY SHOW continues now from the General Motors Building 
at Trump Plaza in New York City.

JANE CLAYSON, co-host:

Public education campaigns and improved methods of early detection are helping 
doctors and scientists battle breast cancer. But the root cause remains elusive. 
In this morning's HealthWatch report, Dr. Emily Senay looks at the possible 
links between cancer and the environment. Emily, good morning.

Dr. EMILY SENAY reporting:

Good morning, Jane. Well, with each diagnosis of breast cancer comes the 
question: How did I get this disease? A majority of women with breast cancer are 
not in so-called high risk categories, an alarming fact that continues to raise 
questions about the role of the environment.

Unidentified Woman #1: Come on, the walk is going to start.

SENAY: This walk is just another step in the 10-year journey of 1 in 9, the Long 
Island Breast Cancer Action Coalition, a grassroots organization that says their 
polluted environment is to blame for a high rate of cancer.

Ms. GERI BARISH (President, 1 in 9): People tell you I live on a street of 12 
homes, and 11 have cancer, that's pretty frightening. You look at these wells. 
You've got one, two, three, four, five wells right in the same area, on top of 
each other. Two of those wells were closed. How come?

SENAY: Geri Barish, a breast cancer survivor, helped launch a study that's 
looking for answers to these questions.

Ms. BARISH: They're now looking at soil, dust, tissue, blood samples. There's 
certainly enough suspect to say stop using that pesticide or that chemical. It's 
a carcinogen. Stop.

SENAY: But linking chemicals to cancer has not been easy. Studies done so far 
have not been definitive. According to Dr. Barron Lerner, author of "The Breast 
Cancer Wars," it's time to look harder at the environment.

Dr. BARRON LERNER (Columbia University): It's much harder to study the 
environment to try to find associations between environmental toxins and breast 
cancer than it is to enroll women in a study where some are taking the pill and 
some are taking a dummy pill.

SENAY: Until now, understandably, women have fought for treatments. But the 
front in the war on breast cancer may be shifting.

Dr. LERNER: The question is how much smaller do we have to find cancers? How 
many more pre-cancers do we have to find? Can we expand the breast cancer 
movement to look at a broader issue like stopping cancer at its root source?

Ms. BARISH: We need the people to know what they live on, who they were, where 
they came from, and we need for the public to be responsible enough for the next 
generation, at least.

CLAYSON: So, Em, describe, explain why it is so difficult to study the 
environment as it relates to cancers.

SENAY: You have to control for so many different variables. You would have to 
study very large populations--and these kinds of studies tend to be very 
expensive--to really rule out all other causes but one particular chemical in 
the environment. That's why this whole area has been fraught with so much--so 
many problems in trying to definitively say this causes cancer or it doesn't 
cause cancer.

CLAYSON: Right. It's not as easy as just testing the water or just testing the 
soil.

SENAY: Absolutely right, Jane. In fact, a recent study came out that said that 
there was no link between a pesticide of DDT and breast cancer. But again, this 
is just one study. This is probably an area that's going to get a lot more 
attention in the next few years.

CLAYSON: Sure is scary to think about, I've got to tell you.

SENAY: I know. It really is, but it's important that we really acknowledge that 
this is what needs to be looked at.

CLAYSON: Emily Senay, thank you.

SENAY: Thanks, Jane.

CLAYSON: Seven fifty-two. We're back after this.

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