Christopher Busby
Environmental Research SIA, Latvian Academy of Sciences, Latvia
Title: The breast cancer epidemic: Evidence for a radiogenic cause
Biography
Biography: Christopher Busby
Abstract
The marked increase in rates of breast cancer, together with the reduction in the age of onset of the disease which began in the 1980s, point to some environmental cause. An early analysis of cohort effects in breast cancer mortality in England and Wales was presented at the 1998 World Breast Cancer Conference in Ontario. Cohort effects suggest that the principal cause was exposure to radionuclides in atmospheric test fallout. This provided a basis for epidemiological studies of breast cancer mortality near three nuclear sites in England and Wales, the results of which are presented here. Using small area data supplied by the Office for National Statistics we found a statistically significant doubling of the risk of dying of breast cancer in census wards close to the offshore coastal sediment contaminated by routine releases from the Hinkley Point nuclear site in Somerset between 1994 and 2004. In a separate study using the same data source we found a significant doubling of breast cancer mortality in small area census wards adjacent to coastal sediment contaminated by releases from the Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex. A third study employed an epidemiological questionnaire approach to examine breast cancer incidence downwind of the nuclear power station at Trawsfynydd in Wales. Results showed a statistically significant 4-fold excess incidence in the ten years prior to the survey. Taken together and with other evidence these results support the belief that the increases in breast cancer seen in the last 30 years are principally radiogenic in origin.