Women of Color, Breast Cancer and the Environment

Brionna Hair

A.B. in Environmental Studies

May 2006

Executive Summary

Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in women and the second leading cause of death from cancer in women. Though white women have the highest incidence of breast cancer overall in the US, African-American women younger than forty years of age have a higher incidence than white women and are more likely to die from the disease. There are several factors known to be related to increased risk for the development of breast cancer in women. However, these known risk factors do not explain all of breast cancer incidence or the disparity between African-American and white women. One factor thought to be related to the disease’s incidence is exposure to environmental toxins. Exposure to certain chemicals, such as ones from pesticides, industrial processes, and plastics, have all been hypothesized to lead to breast cancer. Considering the fact that people of color are disproportionately exposed to environmental toxins, it has been suggested that the disparity in breast cancer mortality between African-American and white women may be linked to environmental exposure.

Though much research into the environmental causation of breast cancer in general is not conclusive and research into the environmental link to breast cancer among African-American women is sparse, scientific study into the relationship is ongoing. Of note about research surrounding the environment and breast cancer is that a good deal of it is the result of advocacy on the part of breast cancer activists. In what has been termed the environmental breast cancer movement, women concerned with high breast cancer incidence in their communities worked with scientists to study environmental causation.

Using the environmental breast cancer movement as a model, this thesis explores the potential for a similar movement among women of color to address the environmental causation of breast cancer as it affects them. There have been several occurrences indicating that women of color are beginning to address this issue, including a community forum held by an environmental justice group focusing on breast cancer and the environment in women of color. The knowledge and attitudes of women of color involved in breast cancer organizations and/or environmental justice organizations regarding the link between breast cancer and the environment were researched for this thesis in order to discover implications for the future of connecting breast cancer advocacy and environmental justice. Eighteen women participated in hour-long in-depth interviews.

The results of the interviews suggest that there is potential for collaboration to emerge among women of color in these groups to address the environmental causation of breast cancer. Many of the women in both groups believe in the environmental causation of breast cancer and think that environmental causation could be linked to the difference in mortality between African-American women and white women. Also, there are many similar approaches to activism between the two groups, a key consideration when thinking about future collaboration.

However, some obstacles to these two movements working together presented. These include disbelief of the environmental causation of breast cancer and doubt about racism being a factor in environmental justice on the part of some of the breast cancer activists. Also, the priorities of many of the breast cancer activists lay in improving access to health care among women of color, which, though very important, does not fit into the framework of preventing disease in the first place held by environmental justice activists. Another concern is that activists of both movements were largely unaware that the other existed in their communities.

However, the overall attitudes of the women of color suggest that there is potential for these two groups to collaborate on breast cancer and the environment. Perhaps with increased awareness of the plausibility that breast cancer in women of color could be linked to environmental causation and higher visibility of the groups to each other, linkages between the two groups will gain momentum.