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R E S E A R C H I N G T H E E N V I R O N M E N T A N D W O M E N S H E A L T H
S I L E N T S P R I N G R E V I E WS U M M E R 2R E S E A R C H I N G T H E E N V I R O N M E N T A N D W O M E N S H E A L T H S U M M E R 2
From Earth IndivisibTerry Tempest Williams reflectson the unbreakable links
between the health of our
planet and the health of our
own bodies.
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Forty-five years ago Rachel Carson captured the nations attention with her imagined portrayal
of wildlife imperiled by the indiscriminate spray of pesticides. The few birds seen anywhere
were moribund, she wrote. They trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring with-
out voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird
voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.
When Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, her vivid prose and persuasive arguments
helped spark the modern environmental movement. The book also sparked the ire of
the chemical industry, whose representatives labeled Carson a hysterical woman and
tried to dismiss her as a priestess of nature, but then threatened her with lawsuits.Despiteor perhaps because ofher personal struggle with the breast cancer that
would kill her in less than two years, she reigned serene during those attacks. I have
felt bound by a solemn obligation, she wrote a friend, to do what I couldif I didnt
at least try I could never be happy again in nature.
Throughout this issue of the Silent Spring Reviewyoull find evidence of sereneeven
upbeatdefiance, in recognition of an oft-neglected truth: We are woven into the
tapestry of this earth, and what we commit to our environment we commit to our bodies.
In recognition of this truth, naturalist Terry Tempest Williams, whose essay about
Carson is excerpted in this issue, once gathered with a band of other women to protest
nuclear testing in the desert. During her arrest for trespass on military lands, two officers
frisked her and found, tucked into her boot, a pen and pad of paper. When asked what
they were, she responded, with a smile, Weapons.
Detailed in these pages are a number of weapons were employing to understand the
indivisible links between the environment and our bodies. These initiatives range from a com-
prehensive review of studies on environmental factors that may increase breast cancer risk,
to our work with one community in its quest for environmental justice, to our research into
the health implications of what were flushing down our drains. These efforts reflect
another critical indivisibility: the powerful connection between scientists and activists in
unraveling truths about the environmental causes of breast cancer. Whether our weapons
are pens and paper or the increasingly sophisticated tools of researchthe geographic
information systems, the estrogenicity bioassays, the indoor air samplerswe join acommunity of women and men fighting for the health of our planet and of ourselves.
Now, in the centennial year of Rachel Carsons birth, we at Silent Spring Institute seek
to extend her legacy as we continue to discover critical, indivisible links.
The Silent Spring Reviewispublished by Silent SpringInstitute, which is dedicated to
identifying the links between the environ-ment and womens health, especially breastcancer.
Executive DirectorJulia Green Brody, PhD
Board of DirectorsEllen Parker, ChairBev BaccelliLawrence N. Bailis, PhDJohn K. Erban, MDCatherine Farrell, Esq.Amy PresentCathie Ragovin, MD
Anne Speakman
National Advisory CouncilJoan Gardner, ChairSamuel Bader, PhDVernal BranchShelley Hearne, DrPHJeanne MockardEllen ParkerMary S. Wolff, PhD
Friends of Silent Spring InstituteEllen S. Calmas, Chair
Scientific and Administrative StaffKathleen Attfield, Staff ScientistAnna Batty, Administrative AssistantJudith Blaine, Information SpecialistAnne Bonner, Director of Developmentand Community Affairs
Diane Czwakiel, Administrative ManagerSarah Dunagan, Research AssistantGwen Dwyer, Administrative AssistantClare Froggatt, Development AssistantAllan Just, Research AssistantCheryl Osimo, Cape Cod CoordinatorRuthann Rudel, Senior ScientistLaurel J. Standley, PhD, Senior Scientist
Silent Spring Reviewis published bySilent Spring Institute29 Crafts Street, Newton MA 02458phone: 617 332 4288 fax: 617 332 4284email: [email protected]: www.silentspring.org
Editor: Paula Brewer ByronEditorial Consultant: Stephen DickermanDesigner: Joseph QuackenbushPhotography: Cheryl Himmelstein, cover; Di
ital Vision/Getty Images, page 3; AP Photo,page 5; Tony Hutchings/Photographers ChoicGetty Images, page 6; Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images, page 7;Craig Lee/San Francisco Chronicle, page 8;Mark DuFrene/West County Times/AP Photopage 9; courtesy of Vernal Branch, page 10Vital Albuquerque, page 11; Chad Baker/Ryan McVay/Getty Images, page 12
Silent Spring Institute, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonproorganization, has received support from theAgua Fund, Art beCAUSE Foundation, AvonFoundation, Babylon Breast Cancer CoalitionBarnstable County Assembly of Delegates,Beldon Fund, The Breast Cancer Fund, CapeCod Five Cents Savings Bank Charitable Foundation, Cape Cod Foundation, The Dolphin Trust,Fleet Foundation/Charles F. Bacon Trust, GALEFund, Heinz Endowments, Hurricane Voices
Breast Cancer Foundation, Janes Trust, Jessie BCox Charitable Trust, John H. and H. NaomiTomfohrde Foundation, Massachusetts Affiliatof Susan G. Komen for the Cure, MassachusettBreast Cancer Coalition, Massachusetts Depart-ment of Public Health, Massachusetts Environ-mental Trust, National Cancer Institute, NationaInstitute of Environmental Health Sciences,National Library of Medicine, National ScienceFoundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, SusaS. Bailis Breast Cancer Research Fund of SilenSpring Institute, University of MassachusettsLowell, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cacer Research Program, U.S. Geological Surveyand individual and corporate contributors.
Our Commitment
Julia Brody, PhDExecutive Director
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The tender scene is a familiar one: a mother cradles
her firstborn in her arms as she nurses. But at the
same time shes nourishing her baby shes also
unwittingly transmitting dozens of toxins, the
legacy of her own decades on earth. And the infant
already has a chemical inheritance from its time in
the womb: In one recent study, the umbilical cord
blood of 10 newborns was found to contain an
average of 200 contaminants, including a range ofpesticides, flame retardants, and other pollutants.
We all carry a body burden from the chemical swirl of our
environment. But when does that burden grow too heavy?
Which chemicals can be tolerated safely, and which trigger the
development of cancerous cells?
To help clarify the chemical risks for breast cancer, Silent Spring
Institute has compiled the most comprehensive review to date of
scientific research on environmental factors that may increase risk
of the disease. The study findingsentitled Environmental
Factors in Breast Cancerappear in the June 15, 2007 issue
of the American Cancer Societys journal Cancer.
The state-of-the-science reviewcommissioned by Susan G.
Komen for the Cure and conducted by Silent Spring Institute in
collaboration with researchers from Harvard University, Roswell
Park Cancer Institute, and the University of Southern Califor-
niainvolved the collection and assessment of scientific studies
on potential links between specific environmental factors and
breast cancer.
The research team synthesized data from national and
international sources and identified 216 chemicals that cause
mammary tumors in animals. They then used that information
to create a searchable online database featuring detailedinformation on the carcinogens. The Mammary Carcinogens
Review Database offers summary assessments of the carcino-
genic potential of each chemical, data on mutagenicity, oppor-
tunities for exposure in the general population and for women
at work, and other characteristics of chemical use, sources,
and regulation.
The database reveals that among those 216 compounds
identified as causing breast tumors in animals, 73 have been
present in consumer products or as contaminants in food,
35 are air pollutants, and 25 have been associated with occu-
pational exposures affecting more than 5,000 women a year.
Twenty-nine of the compounds are produced in the United
States in large quantities, often exceeding one million pounds
a year. The database includes references to 900 studies.
The researchers note that these data are reflected in neithe
regulatory policies designed to limit chemical exposures nor guide-
S U M M E R 2 0 0 7
Name Your Poison
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lines designed to alert physicians or public
health agents to potential links between
chemical exposures and health effects.
The researchers believe the informa-
tion will prove valuable to regulators
who are considering options for limiting
human exposure, manufacturers who
are planning to reformulate products
and re-engineer processes to avoid sus-
pect chemicals, and epidemiologistswho are seeking to identify new chemi-
cals, exposure scenarios, and exposed
populations for breast cancer studies.
The Silent Spring Institute project also
examined lifestyle influences on breast
cancer, such as physical activity and diet.
The result of this portion of the research
the Environment and Breast Cancer Epi-
demiology Reviews Databaseis com-
posed of critical reviews of approximately
450 primary epidemiologic research arti-
cles on breast cancer and diet, environ-
mental pollutants, physical activity, and
body size. This database, which includes
articles published through June 2006, will
be updated periodically.
The researchers sought to determinepoints of consensus within the scientific
community on the relationship between
environmental factors and breast cancer
and to identify areas needing additional
investigation or improved research meth-
ods. They are hoping that such informa-
tion will help guide public policy and
allow funding organizations to deter-
mine how best to target research funds.
The authors noted a considerable
disparity between the attention paid to
dietary factors and that paid to environ-
mental pollutants. The diet literature
search identified nearly 1,500 relevant
articles published since 1950, for exam-
ple. In contrast, although the environ-
mental pollutants of interest were firstsynthesized in the 1940s and put into
widespread use in the 1950s, interest in
these chemicals among breast cancer
researchers dates only to the 1990s.
The overwhelming majority of
chemicals identified as animal mammary
carcinogens or endocrine-disrupting
4 S IL EN T SP RI NG R EV IE W
Name Your Poison, continued
Acrylamide
Carbon tetrachloride
Methylene chloride
Perfluorooctanoic acid
Urethane
Vinyl chloride
CHEMICAL NAME
Exposure Routes and Mammary Gland Tumor Findings for Several Chemicals with Widespread Exposure
Often through consumption of certain foods, such as french fries, as acrylamide isformed when starch-rich foods are heated to high temperatures. Another source ofexposure could be drinking water contaminated with polyacrylamide flocculantsused in water treatment or polyacrylamide-containing consumer products. Tobaccosmoke is a substantial nonfood source of exposure to acrylamide.
May be used in paint and varnish remover, cleaning and sanitation products, autoproducts, and hobby/craft products. Formerly used as a dry cleaning agent, anaerosol propellant, a pesticide/fumigant, and a fire-extinguishing agent.
Widespread exposure occurs during the production and industrial use of methylenechloride and during the use of a range of consumer products. Consumer products thatmay contain the chemical include: fabric cleaners, furniture polish, paint strippers,wood sealants and stains, spray paints, adhesives, shoe polish, and art supplies. Useduntil 1989 as a propellant for hair spray. Substantial losses to the environment lead toubiquitous low-level exposures from ambient air and groundwater.
Used in non-stick and stain-resistant coatings on rugs, furniture, clothes, cookware,fire-fighting applications, cosmetics, lubricants, paints, and adhesives. Former use ininsecticide and herbicide formulations resulted in its direct release to the environ-ment. Widely detected in blood samples of U.S. residents.
Used as a solvent for organic materials and a co-solvent in the manufacture of pesti-cides, fumigants, and cosmetics. Found to occur in foods and beverages that undergoa fermentation process, such as beer, bread, wine, soy sauce, yogurt, and olives.
Used almost exclusively by the plastics industry to produce polyvinyl chloride, or PVC,a plastic resin found in many consumer and industrial products. Previously was usedas a refrigerant and in aerosol propellants, including hairsprays, but these uses werebanned in 1974.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXPOSURE
When administered in drinking water, acrylamide increasedthe incidence of mammary adenomas and adenocarcinomas infemale rats.
When administered by subcutaneous injection, carbon tetra-chloride induced mammary adenocarcinomas and fibroadenomasin female rats.
High levels of methylene chloride were associated with benignmammary tumors in rats as well as an increase in the number ofmammary tumors per animal. Four of the six relevant studies listedin the Carcinogenicity Potency Database reported mammary tumors.Methylene chloride inhalation was also found to increase the inci-dence of fibroadenomas of the mammary gland in female rats.
Two studies found that perfluorooctanoic acid is a multisitecarcinogen. The single study that included females observedmammary gland tumors in rats.
When administered in the drinking water, urethane induced mam-mary carcinomas in mice of both sexes and mammary tumors inhamsters of both sexes.
In mice of both sexes, vinyl chloride caused mammary gland tumors.Vinyl chloride also caused mammary gland tumors in female ratsand hamsters.
SUMMARY OF MAMMARY GLAND TUMOR FINDINGS
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compounds have never been included
in an epidemiologic study of breast can-
cer, says Julia Brody, executive director
of Silent Spring Institute. Just as alarm-
ing, most chemicals that Americans are
exposed to have never been included in
an animal cancer bioassay.
The review of epidemiology related
to environmental pollutants shows thatresearch in this area is still relatively
sparse. Results in recent years, however,
have begun to show evidence of
increased risk associated with exposure
to polychlorinated byphenols (PCBs)
banned chemicals previously used in
electrical equipment and other prod-
uctsin genetically susceptible women
and to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs), which are ubiquitous air pollu-
tants from vehicle exhaust and other
sources of combustion byproducts.
Results of studies of organic solvents and
dioxins suggest possible associations with
breast cancer and support additional
research on those compounds.
The many studies of dietary factors
have allowed us a greater opportunityto evaluate consistency across studies
before placing confidence in results,
Brody says. In contrast, conclusions
from the environmental pollutants epi-
demiology rest on fewer studies. Addi-
tional support comes from animal studies
that identify PAHs and some organic sol-
vents as animal mammary carcinogens
and PCBs and dioxins as endocrine dis-
ruptors. These studies provide evidence
of biological mechanisms that may link
these chemicals to breast cancer.
The databases, available at www.
silentspring.org/sciencereview, are
expected to be of particular interest to
researchers, health care workers, and
policy makers, as well as to members of
the public.While its disturbing to learn that so
many chemicals may be linked to breast
cancer, Brody says, we must remem-
ber that we have a great opportunity to
save thousands of lives by identifying
those links, limiting exposure, and find-
ing safer alternatives. Its critical that we
integrate this information into policies
that govern chemical exposures.
BREATHING ROOM: A woman
in the 1940s uses an aerosol
can loaded with DDT in an
attempt to control flies. The
pesticide was banned in1972, ten years after Rachel
Carson brought to light its
destructive properties in her
landmark book Silent Spring.
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Clean water is fundamental to
life. Yet many septic systems do
not rid sewage of pollutants
that may be harmful to human
health before discharging the
sewage to groundwaterand in
some cases before it contami-
nates drinking water wells.
Silent Spring Institute scientists made
this discovery after monitoringfor the
first time everwater for hormone-
disrupting chemicals such as natural
estrogen and alkylphenols, as well as
certain pharmaceuticals, as the water
passed from the septic system into the
ground. The study looked at a typical
septic system on Cape Cod, where sep-
tic systems serve more than 85 percent
of residential and commercial proper-
ties. Two other chemicals the researchers
detected indicated the presence of
sewage fallout: optical brighteners,
which are found in laundry detergents,
and caffeine.
The presence of hormone-disrupting
chemicals in the environment has been
associated with the feminization of male
fish and reduced fertility in other wild-
life. The scientists note that additional
research is needed to determine whether
the concentrations typically observed inthe environment produce similar adverse
effects on the human hormone system.
Exposures during critical prenatal and
childhood stages of reproductive devel-
opment may be most critical.
Effects on hormonally responsive can-
cers are an additional concern. Chemicals
that mimic natural estrogen, for example,
may contribute to a womans cumulative
lifetime exposure to estrogen, a factor
that has been linked to an increased risk
of developing breast cancer.
One in every four citizens of the
United States relies on septic systems
for wastewater treatment. At least a
portion of the residents in a number
of statesincluding Delaware, Florida,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey,
and New Yorkalso rely on private,shallow groundwater wells for their
drinking water. With housing density
increasing and lot size shrinking to
accommodate population growth, the
likelihood is growing that wastewater
from a households or neighboring
households septic system will contami-
nate a drinking water well.
While septic systems may be effec-
tive at preventing bacterial contamina-
tion of these water supplies, says Chris
Swartz, lead researcher for the study,
our results suggest that these systems
do not remove hormone-disrupting
chemicals from septic wastewater before
they infiltrate into groundwater.
And since groundwater feeds many
drinking water supplies, Swartz adds, fur-
ther research is needed to determine the
extent and potential effects of drinking
water contamination. Previous research
on hormone disruptors focused on sur-
face waters receiving discharge from
wastewater treatment plants. This study
was the first to directly link the infiltration
of these hormone disruptors into ground-waterand therefore residential well
waterfrom onsite treatment systems.
Our findings should encourage com-
munities to consider more restrictive land
use policies to protect their public and
private drinking water supply wells,
Swartz says. Communities may also con
sider replacing onsite septic wastewater
treatment systems with improved onsite
technologies or centralized wastewater
treatment plants, at least in densely pop-
ulated areas that rely on shallow ground-
water as a drinking water source.
The study appeared in the August 15
2006, issue of Environmental Science &
Technology.
Down the Drain
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Rachel Carson has never been more relevant. And
yet 45 years after the publication of Silent Spring,
we still do not seem to have fully absorbed her
message of caution and prudence regarding the
power of pesticides. We are still walking down the
path of environmental degradation.
Rachel Carson. I first heard her name from my grandmother. I
must have been seven or eight years old. We were feeding thebirdssong sparrows, goldfinches, and towheesin my grand-
parents yard in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Imagine a world without birds, my grandmother said as
she scattered seed and filled the feeders. Imagine waking up to
no birdsong. I couldnt. Later, at the breakfast table, she and my
grandfather engaged in an intense discussion of the book they
were reading, Silent Spring, as my mind tried to grasp what my
grandmother had just said about a muted world.
Decades later, I found myself in a used bookstore in Salt
Lake City. The green spine of Silent Spring caught my eye. I
pulled the classic off the shelf and opened it. First edition,
1962. As I reread various passages, I was struck by how little
had changed. Each page was still a shock and a revelation
just as they are today.
The natural landscape is eloquent of the interplay of
forces that have created it, Rachel Carson wrote. It is spread
before us like the pages of an open book in which we can
read why the land is what it is, and why we should preserve
its integrity. But the pages lie unread.
The pages still lie unread.
Rachel Carson is a hero of mine. She remains a regal and
revolutionary figure within the conservation community, a
towering example within American democracy of how onepersons voice can make an extraordinary difference both in
public policy and in the minds of the populace.
I want to remember Rachel Carsons spirit. I want to carry
a sense of indignation inside to shatter the complacency that
has seeped into our society. Call it sacred rage, a rage that is
grounded in the knowledge that all life is intertwined.
I think of that day with my grandmother, feeding the
birds. Today the idea of a spring without birdsong is indeed
imaginable.
Rachel Carson has called us to action. We can live differ-
ently. We can see the world whole, even holy. The health of
the planet is our own.
Terry Tempest Williams is an award-winning author, a naturalist, and
an environmental activist. Her environmental literature classics include
Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; An Unspoken
Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; andLeap. This article
was excerpted from The Moral Courage of Rachel Carson, an essay
that appears in Courage from the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and
Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson,published
by Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007. Reprinted with permission.
S U M M E R 2 0 0 7
The Moral Courage of Rachel CarsonBy Terry Tempest Williams
A SENSE OF WONDER: Rachel Carson fought passionately to protect
natureand life itself. This year marks the centennial of her birth
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The residents of some neighborhoods in Richmond,
California, awaken each morning with their senses
fully engaged: They feel a familiar burning in their
eyes and throats, smell the acrid stench of sulphur,
and hear the endless rumble of diesel trucks. And
they find their homes once again blanketed with a
thin coating of soot.
Richmond spreads out across a peninsula separating San PabloBay, a shallow tidal estuary, from San Francisco. Once ranching
country, the city has been transformed over the past century
into a highly industrialized urban landscape, with the second
largest oil refinery on the West Coast helping to define its
silhouette. Richmond is also home to a chemical plant, a meta
fabrication factory, and a power plant. Two major train lines
form a nexus there, and several interstates and one parkway
snake through the city. The emissions from all those industries
and transit lines seep into the homesand lungsof residents.
In Richmond, paint peels off houses and cars far faster
than anywhere else Ive seen, says Carla Perez, a community
organizer and director of the Northern California Program of
Communities for a Better Environment (CBE). Soot collects
everywhere. Its not surprising that Richmond has the countyshighest hospitalization rate for asthma.
Just twenty miles to the west, perched on the California
coast, is Bolinas, a town with a population one-hundredth tha
of Richmond. A nearly reclusive community, Bolinas has no
heavy industry. There, residents can awaken to the scent of
clean salt air and the sounds of birdsong and ocean swells.
CBE, an environmental health and justice organization in
California, has joined forces with Silent Spring Institute and
Brown University to study the patterns of exposure to chemical
pollutants in Richmond and Bolinas. From June to October
2006with protocols, equipment, and training provided
by Silent Spring InstituteCBE staff members collected air
and dust samples both inside and outside 40 homes in the
Liberty/Atchison Village area of Richmond. They also took sam-
ples from 10 homes in Bolinas.
The collaborators are now comparing the samples in the
two communities in an effort to determine whether residents
of Liberty/Atchison Village are at higher risk for exposure to a
number of pollutants that have been implicated as hormone
disruptors or as potential causes of breast cancer. The samples
are being tested for approximately 100 chemicals used in con-
sumer products or found in polluted outdoor air.
Were focusing on endocrine-disrupting compoundsbecause of the role they may play in breast cancer and other
diseases, says Julia Brody, executive director of Silent Spring
Institute. This study is a critical step in a series of investigations
that need to be conducted to determine how the chemicals
were exposed to in our homes may be affecting our health.
The project builds on the Institutes previous work on Cape
Cod, in which researchers conducted the most comprehensive
assessment to date of endocrine disruptors in homes. During
the next two years Silent Spring Institute researchers will be
Environmental Justice for All
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It took less than three weeks for the pea-sized lump in one of Vernal Branchs breasts to
grow into a tumor the size of a golf ball. Her immediate response was to learn everything
she could about treatment optionsand to take action. In the dozen years since her
diagnosis and the mastectomy that followed soon after,
Branch has taken that same thoughtful yet decisive
approach to her role as an impassioned advocate for
research into the environmental causes of breast cancer.
I began by getting involved with several breast cancer
organizations, Branch says. I eventually gained the confi-
dence to take part in shaping public policy. And Ive since
been able to create educational outreach programs that affect
the African American community.
Branch now serves as a minority recruitment consultantfor the Sister Study, a national research program that fol-
lows the sisters of women with breast cancer to help tease
out the different roles that genes and the environment may play in causing the disease.
More recently, Branch has been sharing her hard-won expertise as one of the founding
members of Silent Spring Institutes National Advisory Council.
Joan Gardner, director of the University of MassachusettsBoston GIS Core Research
Facility, serves as chair of the new Council. Before joining the university, she was the chair-
woman and president of Applied Geographics, Inc., a geographic information systems
consulting firm.
Other Council members include Samuel Bader, PhD, a senior physicist and leader of
the Nanomagnetism Group at Argonne National Laboratory.
Shelley Hearne, DrPH, brings a depth of experience in environmental health. A formerexecutive director of Trust for Americas Health, she has also served as executive director of
the Pew Environmental Health Commission, acting director of the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protections Office of Pollution Prevention, and staff scientist for the Natu-
ral Resources Defense Council, where she focused on issues relating to pesticides and other
toxic substances.
Jeanne Mockard is the managing director and senior portfolio manager for Putnam Invest-
ments in Boston.
Ellen Parker, who chairs the Silent Spring Institute Board of Directors, is a social worker
in private practice in Newton, Massachusetts. She is also a former president and founding
board member of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, as well as a founding board
member of Silent Spring Institute.
Mary Wolff, PhD, is the director of the Division of Environmental Health Science at the
Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She also directs the Mount Sinai Center for Childrens
Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research. Her research focuses on the mea-
surement of environmental exposures and their relationship to cancer risk, reproductive
dysfunction, and developmental disorders.
These Council members offer a diversity of backgrounds, yet they all share a passion for
uncovering the links between cancer and the environment. Im working for my two-year-old
granddaughter, Branch says. I dont want her generation to be burdened with the increasing
rates of breast cancer that my generation has faced. I want to help prevent the disease.
1 0 S I LE NT S PR I NG R EV I EW
Mission Possible The Right Toofor the Job
Ever wonder whether your risk for
developing breast cancer could be
related to where you live? Or whether
the rates of childhood cancer in
your region are higher than nor-
mal? Perhaps youve been wonder-
ing whether any hazardous waste
facilities are in the vicinity of your
childs school, or perhaps youve
noticed that such facilities seem to
be disproportionately located near
communities of color.
Those living in Massachusetts
can now do more than merelywonder; they can answer such
questions by using a web-based
mapping tool known as the Massa-
chusetts Health and Environment
Information System, or MassHEIS.
This tool, developed by Silent
Spring Institute with funding from
the National Library of Medicine,
allows browsers to explore how
pollution sources, environmental
quality indicators, and certain
health outcomes vary across the
state. Browsers can also examinerelationships among these factors.
MassHEIS is unique in combining
health, demographic, and environ-
mental databases into one web-
based tool. Browsers can map air
quality measures and transportation
corridors, for example, along with
data on asthma hospitalizations.
Maps help us grasp relation-
ships between disease and environ-
mental characteristics, says Julia
Brody, executive director of Silent
Spring Institute. This powerful
tool offers valuable access to infor-
mation to residents who want to
find out more about the potential
health hazards in their town or
region. Communities need this kind
of information to help them advo-
cate for change.
To use MassHEIS, visit http://library
silentspring.org/heis/quickstart.asp.
Vernal Branch
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Did YouKnow?
In the 100 years since RachelCarsons birth, U.S. production of
synthetic chemicals has soared,
from less than 10 million pounds
a year to more than 300 billion
pounds a year.
In the 65 years since womenjoined factories in droves to
help the nations wartime effort,
thousands of women have worked
in jobs with exposure to chemicals
that cause breast cancer in animals,yet the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration has not
required mammograms as part of
medical screening for workers.
In the 35 years since DDT usewas banned in the United States,
residues of the pesticide have
lingered in the countrys food supply,
including 87 percent of the milk
samples that the U.S. Department of
Agriculture tested in 2005.
In the 30 years since unleadedgas was introduced in the United
States, blood lead levels have
decreased markedly in Americans.
In the 20 years since the Com-mission for Racial Justice of the
United Church of Christ published a
landmark report showing that racial
compositioneven more than income
levelis the crucial factor shared by
communities exposed to toxic waste,
people of color have remained more
likely than whites to live in areas
with commercial hazardous sites.
In the 5 years since 3M phasedout products based on the persistent
organic pollutant perfluorooctane
sulfonate, levels of perfluorinated
contaminants in the blood of U.S.
residents have dropped by 50 percent.
S U M M E R 2 0 0 7 1
Silent Spring Institutes strengthcomes not just from its unique
partnership between activists and
scientists, but also from the gen-
erosity and talents of its many
supporters, including the Friends
of Silent Spring Institute.
When the Janes Trust founda-
tion offered a $200,000 challenge
grant to encourage the expansion
of private support for the Institute,
the Friends responded by raising
more than $400,000 from new
and increased contributions. The
challenge grant gave Silent Spring
the confidence to add a new sci-
entist to the research team and to
expand its strategic planning.
The Friends also raised $475,000
for the Susan S. Bailis Breast
Cancer Research Fund during the Institutes
annual dinner, held in Boston in May 2007.
Rachel Carson Advocacy Awards were presented
to Ellen Calmas, founding chair of the Friends,
and Carla Perez, a community organizer with
Communities for a Better Environment.
Ellen Calmas has been a catalyst, inspiring and
involving many new supporters for Silent Spring
Institutes environmental research, says Ellen
Parker, chair of the Institutes Board of Directors.
While she was one of our early advocates, when
she faced her own diagnosis, Ellen responded
by increasing her commitment to prevent breast
cancer in other women.
Parker adds that Carla Perez lives by her belief tha
each of us can change the world. She brings intelli
gence, heart, enormous energy, and clarity of pur-
pose to her struggle for environmental justice.
A Shared Commitment
Other
Private Contributions
Foundations
Federal
State
AIR APPARENT: In Inner House, a signature performance
of the Bennett Dance Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
a woman becomes suspended half in and half out of a
house as if, one reviewer wrote, testing the air. And so
it is fitting that the dance company continues its now
decade-long support of Silent Spring Institute, whose
groundbreaking work testing the air inside and outside
homes in Massachusetts and California has offered critical
clues to the health impact of our chemical burden.
Silent Spring Institute Funding Sources for Fiscal Year 2006
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8/3/2019 articulo primavera
12/12
Ten strategies for reducing your
personal exposure to suspect chemicals
that are found in everyday products:
1. Use only glass and ceramic
containers in the microwave. Some
plastic containers contain chemicals
that mimic or disrupt hormones. These
chemicals can leach into food when
they are heated.
2. Use dry cleaning services that do not
use perchloroethylene (PERC) or
request wet cleaning. Solvents such as
PERC have been linked to various can-
cers. If you must use traditional dry
cleaning with PERC, remove the plastic
bags in an open space and air out your
clothes before hanging them in a closet.
3. Read the labels of products, avoiding
phthalates and fragrance.
Phthalates are endocrine-disrupting
compounds that have been associated
with cancer, impaired fertility, and male
birth defects. Phthalates are often an
ingredient in fragrance, and they are
found in hundreds of products, such as
shampoos, lotions, perfume, cosmetics,
vinyl, and plastics, including toys. Look
for labels that say phthalate-free.
4. When grilling foods, minimize char
by reducing the heat level and using
marinades. Char contains PAHs, or poly-
cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are
known to cause mammary tumors in
animals. In the Long Island Breast Cancer
Study, women who had more DNA dam-
age from PAHs had a higher risk of
breast cancer.
5. Purchase organic foods. Buying
organic reduces your familys exposure
to pesticides. Many of these chemicals
act as endocrine disruptors and are
known to affect brain development
and neurological function in humans.
6. Monitor what goes down the drain
in your home. Help protect your indoo
air and your communitys water supply
by using minimal amounts of the least
toxic cleaning products and pesticides.
Never put cleaning solvents, pesticides,
paint thinners, automobile oil, or gas
down a drain.
7. Choose vacuum cleaners wisely.
Carpets can harbor pesticides, flame
retardants, other chemicals, and
allergens such as mold. Cleaners with a
strong suction, a brush on/off switch, a
multilayered bag for dust collection,
and a HEPA filter are the best at
preventing the recycling of dust.
8. Look for furnishings and electronic
equipment without PBDEs.
PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl
ethers)endocrine disruptors that
affect thyroid hormonesare commer-
cially produced flame retardants often
added to polyurethane foam, various
plastics, and electronics equipment.
When possible, choose carpet pads,
bedding, cushions, and upholstered
furniture made from natural fibers,
including wool, cotton, and hemp.
9. Adopt organic practices for lawn
care and gardening. Children and pets
that play on lawns are exposed to pesti-
cides and herbicides. These chemicals
are tracked into homes, and they can
leach into waterways and drinking water
wells.
10. Encourage your town to use
natural, non-toxic solvents in publicbuildings, especially schools, and to
follow organic practices in the care of
green spaces. Using safer cleaners and
eliminating pesticides on a town-wide
basis helps reduce exposure to
compounds that mimic estrogen or
otherwise disrupt hormones.
N O N P R O F I T
O R G A N I Z A T I O N
U . S . P O S T A G E
PAID
B O S T O N , M A
P E R M I T N O . 5 4 8 4 0
Clues You Can Use
S I L E N T S P R I N G I N S T I T U T E
29 Crafts Street, Newton MA 02458
Mans attitude toward nature is today
critically important simply because we
have now acquired a fateful power to
alter and destroy nature.
Rachel Carson
Printed on recycled, non-chlorine-treatedpaper using soy-based ink
Silent Spring Institute is named in recognitionof Rachel Carson, whose pioneering book tied the useof pesticides to adverse effects on wildlife and humans.Carson died of breast cancer in 1964, just two yearsafter Silent Spring was published. In her memory, SilentSpring Institute works to identify the links between theenvironment and womens health, especially breast can-cer.