Traffic related air pollution responsible for breast cancer

Believe it or not, women working near busy roads are prone to developing breast cancer. You would wonder how? According to Scotland based University of Stirling, women working near busy roads get exposed to traffic related air pollution which contain mammary carcinogens. The university researchers have analysed the case of a woman who developed breast cancer after spending 20 years working as a border guard at the busiest commercial border crossing in North America. The findings of the research were published in the journal New Solutions. How did this woman border guard develop breast cancer? The woman was one of five other border guards who developed breast cancer within 30 months of each other and, at another nearby crossing, a cluster of seven other cases was noted. The researchers have also found that the traffic-related air pollution is contributing to the increasing incidence of breast cancer in the general population. The group of women all developed a cancer believed to have been caused by exhaust fumes in what researchers have branded a ‘new occupational disease’. Health Experts in India are not too surprised by the outcome of the study. However they conced e that there is a need to check the occupational exposures to traffic-related air pollution for women in particular.