Research Results
Beta Version
Use the search bar below to find studies, or apply one or more filters to narrow your results. See our list of keywords to guide your search.
Search by keyword
Select
Select
- All Risk Factors
- Air Pollution
- Alcohol
- Antimicrobials
- Artificial sweeteners
- Bisphenols
- Body Weight
- Breast Density
- Chemical Mixtures
- Chemicals in products
- Cleaning Products
- Diet
- Exercise
- Family History
- Furniture & Electronics
- Genetics
- Gut Health
- Hair Dye
- Hormones
- Inflammation
- Job
- Light at night
- Metals
- Neighborhood
- Night Shift Work
- Noise
- Non-stick Pans & Waterproof Gear
- Oral Contraceptives
- PAHs
- Parabens
- PCBs
- Personal Care Products
- Pesticides
- PFAS
- Pharmaceuticals
- Place-based
- Plastic
- Pregnancy & Breastfeeding
- Processed Food
- Puberty Age
- Race/Ethnicity
- Radiation
- Red meat
- Scented Products & Soft Plastic
- Sleeping Patterns
- Soda
- Stress
- Sugar
- Sunscreen
- Tobacco
- Vitamin D
Select
Select
Select
Select
Select the Chemical Agents
- All Chemical Agents
- 1,1,2,2-TCA
- 1,3-Butadiene
- Acrolein
- Aldrin
- Alkylphenols
- Antimicrobials
- Antimicrobials: QACs, Triclosan, Triclocarban
- Aromatic Amines
- Arsenic
- Artificial Sweeteners
- Atrazine
- Benzene
- Bisphenols
- Cadmium
- Chlordane
- Chlorpyrifos
- DDT
- Dibutyl Phthalate
- Dichlorvos
- Dieldrin
- Dioxins
- ell/
- Ethanol (alcohol)
- Ethyl Benzene
- Ethylene Oxide
- Flame Retardants
- Food
- Formaldehyde
- Glyphosate
- Heptachlor
- Hormones
- Insulin
- Lead
- Light at Night
- Mercury
- Metals
- Methoxyclor
- Naphthalene
- Night Shift Work
- Nitrogen Dioxide
- Noise
- Oral Contraceptives
- Organochlorine Pesticides
- Organophosphate Pesticides
- Ozone
- PAHs
- Parabens
- Particulate Matter
- PCBs
- Pesticides
- PFAS
- Phenols
- Phthalates
- Processed Food
- PVC
- Radiation: Ionizing
- Radiation: Non-Ionizing
- Soda
- Stress
- Sugar
- Tobacco
- Toluene
- Trichloroethylene
- Triclosan
- Ultraviolet Radiation
- UV Filters
- Vinyl Chloride
Select the Study Tags
Sort By
- Relevance
- Title (A to Z)
- Title (Z to A)
- Publication Year (Ascending)
- Publication Year (Descending)
- Authors (A to Z)
- Authors (Z to A)
2023
Environ Pollut
A case-control study in China found that tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA)—a flame retardant chemical—in breast adipose tissue was significantly associated with a 15% increased breast cancer risk per unit increase in exposure. Using advanced metabolomics analysis, researchers discovered that TBBPA disrupts linoleic acid metabolism in adipose tissue, with a specific phospholipid molecule (PC 16:0/16:0) mediating approximately 57% of the association between TBBPA exposure and breast cancer risk. These findings suggest that TBBPA may contribute to breast cancer development through metabolic disruption of fatty acid pathways in breast tissue, providing new mechanistic insight into how flame retardant chemicals may increase cancer risk and identifying potential biomarkers for early detection or intervention.
2022
Environ Int
A large French study of nearly 68,000 women followed for over 21 years found that dietary exposure to PBDEs (flame retardant chemicals) was associated with increased breast cancer risk, but importantly, this association was modified by vegetable oil consumption. Women who consumed higher amounts of vegetable oil (≥4.6 g/day) and had the highest PBDE intake showed a 23% increased breast cancer risk, while those with low vegetable oil consumption showed no increased risk regardless of PBDE exposure. These findings suggest that the interaction between diet and chemical contaminants is important to consider when developing public health recommendations, as certain dietary patterns may amplify or mitigate the health risks associated with environmental chemical exposures.
2018
Environ Res
A Chinese case-control study of 209 breast cancer patients and 165 controls found that women with the highest levels of PBDE flame retardants in their adipose tissue had dramatically elevated breast cancer risk, with some congeners showing 447% to 545% increased risk in the highest exposure groups compared to the lowest. Most individual PBDE congeners—including BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-209, and total PBDEs—were significantly higher in breast cancer cases than controls (median 95.0 vs 73.7 ng/g lipid) and showed strong dose-response relationships with increasing exposure levels. The associations remained robust for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers and in multivariate models adjusting for age and reproductive factors, providing compelling evidence that PBDE exposure may play an important role in breast cancer development, particularly in populations with high environmental exposures to these persistent flame retardant chemicals.
2025
Int J Hyg Environ Health
New research highlights the link between endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and earlier breast development in girls. A systematic review of 68 studies found that 10 out of 14 high-quality studies linked prenatal and postnatal exposure to EDCs like organohalogenated compounds and phthalates to earlier thelarche. With thelarche now occurring nearly three months earlier per decade, these findings raise serious concerns about long-term health risks, including breast cancer. Reducing exposure to harmful chemicals in everyday products is crucial to protecting hormonal health and preventing early puberty.
2024
Toxicol Lett
A meta-analysis of 15 studies including 3,468 cancer cases and 4,187 controls found that brominated flame retardant (BFR) exposure in adipose tissue was significantly associated with increased breast cancer risk, though no association was observed for thyroid cancer. The analysis revealed that BFR exposure generally elevates the risk of endocrine-related cancers, with BDE-28—a lower-brominated congener—showing particularly strong associations with increased cancer risk. These findings identify BFRs as a significant environmental risk factor for breast cancer and suggest that certain BFR congeners may be more carcinogenic than others, though the authors emphasize the need for further research to establish causal mechanisms and clarify how these ubiquitous flame retardant chemicals disrupt endocrine function to promote cancer development.
2024
PNAS
This study examined the health impacts of three major plastic-associated chemicals—BPA, DEHP, and PBDEs—across 38 countries representing one-third of the global population. The researchers found that in 2015, these chemicals were linked to approximately 5.4 million cases of heart disease, 346,000 strokes, 164,000 deaths among older adults, and 11.7 million lost IQ points in children due to prenatal exposure. The total economic cost of these health impacts was estimated at $1.5 trillion. The study suggests that if exposure levels had been reduced earlier, hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of IQ points could have been prevented.
2023
Environ Pollut
A study analyzing breast milk from 50 U.S. mothers ten years after the PBDE phaseout detected 25 brominated flame retardants including 9 PBDEs (found in 100% of samples), 8 bromophenols (88% of samples), and 8 other BFRs, with PBDE concentrations showing a significant 70% decline since 2002 (median 15.0 ng/g lipid, halving time 12.2 years) but bromophenols and replacement flame retardants reaching concentrations up to 71.1 and 278 ng/g lipid respectively. This represents the first measurement of bromophenols and replacement flame retardants in U.S. breast milk, revealing that while legacy PBDE levels have declined substantially following regulatory action, current-use flame retardants are now contaminating breast milk at concerning levels. The persistent presence of phased-out PBDEs alongside emerging bromophenols and replacement BFRs—many of which are persistent, toxic, and bioaccumulative—indicates ongoing prenatal exposure through breastfeeding and increased risk for adverse impacts on infant neurodevelopment; however, it’s important to note that breastfeeding remains recommended and is still considered safer and more beneficial than formula feeding despite the presence of these contaminants, highlighting the urgent need for policies to reduce flame retardant contamination at the source rather than discouraging breastfeeding.
2023
Reprod Toxicol
A review of epidemiologic literature examining environmental chemical exposures during pregnancy and three maternal health outcomes (preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and breast cancer) found that pregnancy represents a unique critical period when biological changes can heighten women’s susceptibility to chemicals from air, food, water, and consumer products—including flame retardants, plasticizers, pesticides, and lead—though research has disproportionately focused on fetal outcomes rather than maternal health risks, which remain poorly characterized for most chemicals. While evidence shows that lead exposure increases risk of pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders and pregnancy can amplify women’s vulnerability to environmental chemicals, variations in study design, exposure assessment methods, and inconsistent adjustment for confounders limited comparability across studies. The authors emphasize that future research must recognize pregnancy as a critical window for women’s lifelong health, calling for incorporation of biomarkers of exposure and effect, deliberate timing and methods of measurement, and consistent confounder adjustment to strengthen understanding of the pregnancy exposome and its impacts on maternal health outcomes beyond the immediate postpartum period.
2023
Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am
Multiple social and structural determinants of health undoubtedly contribute to the marked racial/ethnic-, gender-, and socioeconomic-based disparities in endocrine health; however, the contribution of environmental injustice is vastly underappreciated. Indeed, those groups disproportionately burdened by endocrine disorders are often exposed to higher levels of various EDCs, including PCBs, phthalates, bisphenols, OC pesticides, air pollutants, PFASs, toxic metals/metalloids, and BFRs. These chemicals threaten our reproductive and metabolic health, contributing to diabetes prevalences, obesity, and disorders related to hormonal regulation. This review increases awareness of these disparities and encouraged equitable healthcare for those who are disadvantaged.
2022
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr
This systematic review of 131 epidemiological studies evaluated the association between various endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including phthalates and hormonal exposures like contraceptive pills, and the risk of breast cancer. It found that several EDCs, particularly phthalates and oral contraceptive use, were consistently associated with increased breast cancer risk across multiple studies.
2020
Environ Health
A nested case-control study of 197 incident postmenopausal breast cancer cases and 197 controls with blood samples collected 1994-1999 measured plasma levels of six PBDE congeners (BDE-28, -47, -99, -100, -153, -154) and PBB-153 using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and found no overall evidence of association between brominated flame retardant (BFR) levels and breast cancer risk (log-concentrations yielding odds ratios of 0.87-1.07). Some analyses showed non-linear inverse associations for BDE-100 and BDE-153 with breast cancer risk (third vs. first quintile: OR=0.42; 95% CI: 0.19-0.93 and OR=0.42; 95% CI: 0.18-0.98, respectively) when exposure was modeled as ng/L plasma but not when lipid-adjusted (OR=0.58 and 0.53), with results unchanged by tumor hormone receptor status or BMI. These findings suggest no clear association between internal PBDE and PBB-153 levels and postmenopausal breast cancer risk, though limitations include small sample size, lack of genetic susceptibility information, single time-point exposure assessment that may not represent critical windows of susceptibility, and the paradoxical inverse associations requiring cautious interpretation, warranting additional larger studies with repeated measurements and assessment of early-life exposures to clarify the relationship between BFR exposure and breast cancer development.
2019
Environ Int
A systematic review of 342 peer-reviewed articles covering 202 unique chemicals used in consumer products analyzed exposure pathways, functional uses, product applications, exposure routes, and associated health risks, finding that phthalates, bisphenol-A, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers were the most frequently studied chemicals, with frequently reported uses including plasticizers, polymers/monomers, and flame retardants in food contact materials, personal care products, cosmetics, furniture, flooring, and electronics. The analysis revealed that publication volume on chemicals tends to surge following major regulatory changes or exposure incidents rather than before market introduction, indicating a reactive rather than proactive approach to chemical safety assessment. These findings highlight the critical gap between the increasingly diverse array of chemicals used in consumer products and our lagging understanding of their exposure pathways and human health risks, emphasizing the urgent need to develop capacity and mechanisms for identifying health risks prior to chemical releases rather than after exposure incidents or regulatory action, to enable preventive rather than reactive public health protection.
2019
Environ Int
A case-control study within the California Teachers Study examined 902 women with invasive breast cancer and 936 controls to assess whether serum levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)—common environmental contaminants with endocrine-disrupting properties—are associated with breast cancer risk. Blood samples were analyzed for three prevalent PBDE congeners (BDE-47, BDE-100, and BDE-153), with measurements taken an average of 35 months after cancer diagnosis. The study found no significant association between serum levels of any of the three PBDE congeners and breast cancer risk, even when stratified by menopausal status, tumor characteristics, or body weight. However, the authors note important limitations, including that post-diagnosis blood measurements may not reflect pre-diagnostic or lifetime exposures, and the study lacked information on genetic factors that could influence individual susceptibility.