LIFE'S DELICATE BALANCE

A strongly worded alert to the environmental causes of breast cancer, and an equally strong call for political and personal

action. Unlike Greaves, above, physician Sherman (Chemical Exposure and Disease, not reviewed) lays the burden of escalating breast cancer rates squarely at the feet of environmental polluters. It is clear to Sherman—and her arguments are compelling—that while gains may be made by researchers in understanding the mechanisms of the disease, true advances in conquering cancer will only come when we "understand the connection between the loss of personal health and worldwide pollution from toxic chemicals, ionizing radiation, and endocrine-altering chemicals." Sherman spotlights increasing human breast cancer rates, and couples them with cancer occurrences in wildlife. She explains how readers can put commonly cited risks for the disease into perspective: Such risks are implicated in perhaps 30 percent of breast cancers, but "Risk is not a cause of illness. Risk is the result of exposure to a hazard." Sherman considers the problems associated with breast cancer detection, and then looks in detail at the various environmental hazards acting on women and implicated in cancer development. Take action, she counsels, demand real prevention: "Be outraged by the status quo of waste, sickness, needless early death, loss of human potential, and the loss and degradation of the world’s resources."

Valuable warnings for women and a passionate, well-based explanation of one particular medical viewpoint.