Factors inside and outside our bodies affect our health. Those outside our bodies are often called environmental factors. There is no single scientific definition for the term “environment”. In health research, different scientists may use different categories when deciding whether a risk is environmental.
Environmental factors may include things found in nature that we eat, drink, touch or breathe as well as man-made factors. Possible examples include exposures we may encounter passively (such as sunlight or secondhand smoke) or actively (such as eating fruits and vegetables or drinking alcohol). Even medicines, such as birth control pills or postmenopausal hormones, are sometimes considered environmental exposures.
Factors such as age, the hormones produced in our bodies (such as estrogen) and family history are considered to be personal or genetic factors rather than environmental factors. However, they can interact with environmental factors and affect our health.
Some factors in our environment help keep us healthy, others can increase our risk of breast cancer or other diseases and still others have little, if any, affect on our health.
Researchers can use different types of studies to learn about the environment and breast cancer risk (learn more).
To learn more about the role of the environment in breast cancer, Komen sponsored a new study from the Institute of Medicine, "Breast Cancer and the Environment, a Life Course Approach". Read the final report.
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Updated 04/04/12
