Amid their everyday successes that have become commonplace, many women forget about the history, or should I say “herstory,” that brought us here.
Maya Angelou, Abigail Adams and Gloria Steinem are just a few of the women that changed the way we live and think about our lives, and while we should spend the remainder of International Women’s Month thanking them, we should also spend it thinking about ourselves.
Ever since the Industrial Revolution, pollution has gone up and so have the instances of breast cancer. According to Cornell University researchers, “It is possible that early exposure to some environmental factors increases the risk for breast cancer later in life.”
Cornell researchers define environment as all those factors other than what’s inherited like chemical exposure, diet and lifestyle choice, and they claim the environment could be the cause of half of all breast cancer cases.
But if it’s the environment and our lifestyle choices contributing to such a detrimental health issue in women, then there’s a chance we could combat the monster early. As an effort to take better advantage of Women Herstory Month, here are some ways to potentially positively impact your health by making small shifts in your everyday responsibilities whether you’re a student, teacher or just a dedicated Reveille reader:
Try to eat organic foods. I know there’s a lot of controversy regarding the movement from normal produce to the so-called “better alternative,” but facts show pesticides are pretty potent.
And I think you know pesticides aren’t good for you. The Daily Green, an online guide to green living, took note of the 23 highest pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables. In leafy greens, for example, there are often more than 50 pesticides including 10 that are known as probable carcinogens by the USDA.
Apples and strawberries should also be organic purchases.
But organic eating isn’t the only aspect of the environment that impacts breast cancer risk.
According to the EPA, the inside of a household probably contains 200 to 500 times higher concentrations of 20 toxic substances, some of which are linked to cancer and others that are linked to birth defects.
Where are most of the toxins coming from? Our cleaning products contain chemicals like Cadmium, Crystalline Silica and Para-dichlorobenzene, which are all not only carcinogens but are also found in products like oil colors, cat litter and moth repellents, respectively. It’s time to clean up your cleansers because they could be costing you your health.
IRIN humanitarian news and analysis company recorded in 2007 Pakistan’s leather tanneries were threatening the lives of the people in nearby towns by letting 9,000 cubic meters of waste discharge into water on a daily basis. According to IRIN, that contamination could have been responsible for 70 percent of the area’s diseases. If you think this doesn’t influence you, then you’re wrong. We import our leather from countries just like Pakistan.
But as women, taking charge of our health is more important than ever as we honor our herstory and begin to realize our true potential. This month is a time to take into account the changes we can make to our diets and our lifestyles so that we may better prosper in the future.
Priyanka Bhatia is a 19-year-old freshman with a pre-veterinary medicine major and a minor in environmental management systems. Follow her on Twitter
@TDR_Pbhatia.