An ecological study of organochlorine pesticides and breast cancer in Rural Victoria, Australia

Abstract

A number of studies have suggested that environmental contamination with organochlorine pesticides may be related to risk of breast cancer. To investigate this association in a rural part of Australia, organochlorine contamination data from a breast milk organochlorine study conducted in the state of Victoria in 1993 were used. The state was divided into 11 statistical divisions. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for the 11 regions were calculated using breast cancer incidence data from 1983 to 2002. During that time, 47,250 breast cancer cases occurred in Victoria, which had an average population of 2,147,409 women. The Ovens-Murray region, which was the region most contaminated with org..