I’m the oldest living woman in my bloodline and all women going back to WW2 died in their 40s or early 50s.  My mother and her cousin died from breast cancer.

So I read the article below with great interest.  I’ve previously heard that mammograms often cause cancer and my grandparents’ health deteriorated rapidly after a high voltage power line was routed directly over their cabin.

I’m a long way from being a health freak, but I rarely use my cell phone anymore, don’t have a cordless phone (worse than cell phones) and try to eat mostly organic food.

The Biggest Breast Cancer Risk Factor That No One Is Talking About

By Lucinda Marshall, AlterNet. Posted October 23, 2008.

While the media sound alarms about breast cancer’s links to lifestyle choices and genetics, a much more likely risk factor is going undiscussed.

During October, women are bombarded with media telling us what we can do to stop breast cancer. Article after article after television human interest segment informs us about personal risk factors such as smoking and being overweight (although 70 percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have none of these factors) and about genetic risks (which only account for 10 percent of breast cancers.) We are bombarded with stories about the importance of getting mammograms and other tests. Then there are the survivor stories (usually about women much younger, whiter and cover-girl prettier than the average breast cancer survivor) that pull at our heartstrings. But there is very little mention of environmental factors such as auto exhaust, and chemicals like parabens and phthalates that we are exposed to every day.

The most deafening silence, however, is about radiation, which is a 100 percent known cause of cancer. We are exposed to radiation in a variety of ways, through X-rays, CT scans and mammograms, but also by living near a nuclear power plant or having been exposed to weaponry that uses depleted uranium.

Leuren Moret is geoscientist who has been working for a number of years to raise awareness about the dangers of radiation, an issue she became concerned about after hearing Native American women who live near areas where nuclear weapons have been tested talk about cancer and other health problems they are experiencing and by a visit to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. In this interview, she talks about what we know about the relationship between radiation and breast cancer.

… [extensive interview worth reading]