Cleaners linked to cancer - reposted by andre di cioccio

WOMEN who are fastidious about keeping their house clean and fragrant may be unwittingly increasing their chances of developing breast cancer, a study has warned.
Those who use air fresheners and sprays and foams to remove mould from bathroom tiles the most are more likely to get the disease, US research suggests.
However, Australian and international experts are urging caution over the latest findings, saying the results may have been distorted by cancer patients over-estimating how much they used cleaners after learning they had cancer.
The study by the Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts is the first to link the products, regularly used in millions of homes, with the disease that kills more than 700 Victorian women a year, with more than 3100 new cases diagnosed.
The researchers asked almost 800 breast cancer patients and a group of healthy women of a similar age how often they used various cleaning products.
They found that those who used air freshener sprays were 20 per cent more likely to have developed breast cancer. Daily use raised the odds of the disease developing by 30 per cent, the journal Environmental Health reports.
The link was even stronger with solid air fresheners, with those who used them the most being twice as likely to be diagnosed.
Mould and mildew removers also increased the chances of getting the disease, but no link was found with oven or surface cleaners.
Researchers from Silent Spring Institute, which looks for links between chemicals and women's health, said that in animal studies various compounds had been linked to cancer.