The project identified:

• A large number of 'clusters' of breast cancer throughout the UK.
• Many areas where participants reported high incidence rates for breast cancer.
• A significant number of 'Hot Spots' for breast cancer.

Our analysis of the questionnaires, maps and workshops showed that:

• 54% of participants were concerned about the high incidence rates of breast cancer, cancer in general, asthma and other allergic illnesses.
• 44% of participants were concerned about the effects on environment and health from agricultural and industrial chemicals and emissions. This concern was particularly emphasized in relation to crop spraying, pesticide usage and contamination of food, air and water supplies.
• 34% of participants were worried about the increase in health effects including asthma, hay fever and other illnesses that may possibly be linked to environmental pollution. This was expressed especially in connection with air pollution from traffic and industry.

Recommendations

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently reported that breast cancer had become the most common cancer in women throughout the world. The urgency needed in addressing this growing problem is obvious in the UK, where 635 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed and 240 women die of the disease every week.

WEN demands that more emphasis be placed on prevention of breast cancer.

The following recommendations are based on the analysis of the project questionnaire, and information arising from participants' maps and project workshops.

WEN calls upon the Government to:

• Make women's and children's health the prime indicator of the state of the environment.
• Acknowledge the right of women and their communities to participate as equal and active partners at every level of decision making about local pollution and health-related problems, including setting of research agendas, implementation of recommendations, enforcement and evaluation of solutions.
• Establish mechanisms for improved collaboration between statutory and voluntary bodies (e.g. Department of Health; Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions; Health and Safety Executive; Local Government) in order to effectively address environmental factors linked to breast cancer and women's health. Such collaborative work needs to be done in conjunction with NGOs, government and community groups.
• Commitment of a proportion of annual health spending to a comprehensive programme for primary breast cancer prevention.
• Follow the lead of progressive policies from other European countries on the control and restriction of all endocrine-disrupting substances and implement the Precautionary Principle in connection with all substances, processes and pollutants suspected of impacting adversely on the health of the population.

Research

WEN calls for:

• Acknowledgement of the relevance of women's experienced based evidence on possible links between adverse health effects and environmental pollutants; and commitment to the use of this evidence to initiate official research programmes.
• The planning of a national breast cancer research agenda to be undertaken by governments in consultation with health professionals, patient-user groups, voluntary sector organisations etc.
• Analysis of Health Authority data on breast cancer incidence and prevalence by locality.
• Review of all chemically based pollutants suspected of having the potential to cause breast cancer, and publication of results in freely available and easily accessible forms for the public.
• Synergistic effects on human health of minute amounts of chemicals, pollutants and radiation to be an intrinsic part of research.

Workplace

WEN calls for:

• Employers should be obliged to keep better long-term records of occupational ill health.
• Every worker should have a health file, extending over the whole period of his/her working life, in order to assess possible long-term health effects of hazardous workplaces.
• More research is needed into effects on workers' health from exposure to multiple combinations of pollutants in the workplace. This is especially important for women who can suffer "double jeopardy" from exposure both at home and at work.

WEN will continue to work toward the achievement of these recommendations.