preventionisthecure.org

Publication date: Friday, July 30, 2010

Reprint permission by Newsday.com

By Delthia Ricks

Gov. David A. Paterson has signed two laws affecting what babies put into their mouths and where they sleep.

Paterson approved the measure banning the sale of baby bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers and other products containing the plasticizing agent Bisphenol-A. He also signed into law a measure that does away with drop-side cribs.

Newly released study adds further evidence that girls are entering puberty at an earlier age. As you may have heard and printed online today, pediatricians are evidencing girls are entering puberty as early as 7 years of age. Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco have recruited over 1,200 girls age 6 to 8 years of age and have witnessed a proportion of girls who have breast development at ages 7 and 8 showing the age pubertal onset is decreasing. Research conducted in the past put average age of puberty between 10 and 11 years. This group has been working together and are part of a 7 year Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers (BCERC) network investigating the influence of environmental exposures on mammary gland development. Please take a moment and check out the link below which leads to the Wall Street Journal Article published Aug. 9 2010.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704268004575417442626829952.html?
KEYWORDS=Early+Puberty

April, 2009 
by Karl Grossman

Our recent efforts have been recorded by an accomplished environmental journalist, Karl Grossman who’s well known for his reporting on tough environmental issues. We are most pleased to share following column appeared in this weeks Southampton Press:

“In this day and age of prevention, we owe it to our youngsters to minimize their exposure to potentially harmful products, especially when there are safe, toxin-free alternatives available,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy last week in signing a first-in-the-nation law banning the sale of plastic baby bottles and cups for toddlers containing the BPA.

Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa). 2009 Jun;2(6):598-604. Epub 2009 May 26.

Association between plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D and breast cancer risk.

Crew KD, Gammon MD, Steck SE, Hershman DL, Cremers S, Dworakowski E, Shane E, Terry MB, Desai M, Teitelbaum SL, Neugut AI, Santella RM.

Vitamin D has been associated with decreased risk of several cancers. In experimental studies, vitamin D has been shown to inhibit cell proliferation and induce differentiation and apoptosis in normal and malignant breast cells. Using a population-based case-control study on Long Island, New York, we examined the association of breast cancer with plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) levels, a measure of vitamin D body stores. In-person interviews and blood specimens were obtained from 1,026 incident breast cancer cases diagnosed in 1996 to 1997 and 1,075 population-based controls. Plasma 25-OHD was measured in batched, archived specimens by Diasorin RIA. The mean (SD) plasma 25-OHD concentration was 27.1 (13.0) and 29.7 (15.1) ng/mL in the cases and controls, respectively (P < 0.0001). Plasma 25-OHD was inversely associated with breast cancer risk in a concentration-dependent fashion (P(trend) = 0.002). Compared with women with vitamin D deficiency (25-OHD, <20 ng/mL), levels above 40 ng/mL were associated with decreased breast cancer risk (odds ratio, 0.56; 95% confidence interval, 0.41-0.78). The reduction in risk was greater among postmenopausal women (odds ratio, 0.46; 95% confidence interval, 0.09-0.83), and the effect did not vary according to tumor hormone receptor status. In summary, these results add to a growing body of evidence that adequate vitamin D stores may prevent breast cancer development. Whereas circulating 25-OHD levels of >32 ng/mL are associated with normal bone mineral metabolism, our data suggest that the optimal level for breast cancer prevention is >or=40 ng/mL. Well-designed clinical trials are urgently needed to determine whether vitamin D supplementation is effective for breast cancer chemoprevention.

PMID: 19470790 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

Governor Paterson Signs Executive Order Enacting Green Procurement Initiative

May 12, 2008

Governor David Paterson has signed an executive order establishing a New York State “Green Procurement and Agency Sustainability Program” to promote policies within State agencies and authorities that reduce the consumption of materials and energy and reduce potential impacts on public health and the environment. As a result, State agencies will purchase environmentally friendly commodities, services, and technology and develop sustainability and stewardship programs.

This initiative was originally launched in 2005 by NYS Breast Cancer Network’s Environmental Committee. The Network’s Environmental Committee worked tirelessly over the last three years in coalition with statewide environmental groups, legislators, and the Governor’s office to make this initiative a reality.