Evidence of the role of environmental toxins in disease continues to pile up. A report detailing new links between environmental toxicants and breast cancer, “State of the Evidence 2004: What Is the Connection Between the Environment and Breast Cancer?" concluded that exposure to synthetic chemicals and radiation has contributed more than previously thought to the rising incidence of breast cancer. The report was jointly released October 7, 2004 by the Breast Cancer Fund, a non-profit environmental health organization, and Breast Cancer Action, a non-profit national education and advocacy organization. It contained new evidence from 21 research studies published since February 2003 adding to existing evidence linking toxicants in the environment to breast cancer, and was peer-reviewed by six leading scientists, including a noted scientist from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organization. According to the report, in the past 50 years, a woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer more than tripled in the United States, to one in seven today. This trend parallels a staggering increase of chemicals in the environment: the report says that “compelling scientific evidence" points to some of the 85,000 synthetic chemicals in use today as contributing to breast cancer by altering hormone function or gene expression. Fewer than one in 10 cases of breast cancer occurs in women born with a genetic predisposition for the disease. As many as 50 percent of breast cancer cases remain unexplained by personal characteristics and other traditionally accepted risk factors; epidemiologists and other scientists increasingly believe many cases are linked to environmental factors. “This [is] the clearest evidence yet that the rise in breast cancer incidence is linked to exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals," said Nancy Evans, a health science consultant for the Breast Cancer Fund and the editor of the report. “Medical X-rays, pesticides, household cleaning products, personal care products and some pharmaceuticals—these are just a few of the multiple and chronic exposures contributing to this epidemic."

Other studies continue in an attempt to determine whether endometriosis, a source of chronic pelvic pain in women, may be caused by environmental agents, including exposure to man-made chemicals such as dioxin and PCBs. As far back as 1992, research showed that endometriosis in monkeys could be caused by exposure to dioxin.

Lynn Tondat Carter, Ph.D., whose doctorate is in physiological psychology and is Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, writes in The Celestine Journal that toxins that directly affect the nervous system, called neurotoxins, also affect our immune functions, since the nervous system is intricately connected to the immune system. “Thus, our very ability to think and feel normally can be drastically affected by exposure to toxins. It does not take a giant leap of logic to realize that we could soon be in such a state of toxic poisoning that we would be unable to ‘problem-solve’ our way out." Continues Dr. Carter:

“In 1989 alone, EPA estimates, in its Toxic Release Inventory National Report, that 1.9 billion pounds of chemical were dumped into our nation's water systems. In that same year, 2.4 billion pounds of chemicals were released into the atmosphere; with the total chemical attack on the environment estimated at 5.7 billion pounds. This is only in one year. According to a recent report by the National Research Council, 70,000 of the chemicals in commercial use today have not even been tested for neurotoxic effects.

Known neurotoxins that we are most commonly exposed to are lead, mercury, cadmium and pesticides. Most of these toxins are colorless and odorless, making sensory detection impossible. While sudden poisoning can result in immediate reactions that are traceable to the source, the symptoms of poisoning from today's pollution may come on more slowly due to a gradual build-up.

Here is just a partial list of common sub-clinical symptoms of toxicity: fatigue, lethargy, depression, headaches, allergies, chronic infection, frequent colds, nervousness, sudden anger, sensitivity to perfume/odors, memory loss and joint pains. Because so many of these symptoms could stem from a multitude of other causes, often toxicity is not readily suspected. With continued exposure, neurotoxins may trigger the expression of a disease for which one has a genetic predisposition. In general, it is thought that toxins pose the most dangerous risk for our children."