Link to the Show / Show NotesJulia Brody is a leader in research on environmental pollutants and breast cancer and in public engagement in science. She is the executive director of Silent Spring Institute, a research organization dedicated to studying the links between the environment and women's health, especially breast cancer.
Dr. Julie Brody and her team at the Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts are well-known pioneers in exploring linkages between toxic chemicals exposures and breast cancer, prompted by the high incidence of breast cancer in Cape Cod. Upholding the legacy of Rachel Carson in exploring how environmental threats contribute to disease incidence, Brody has produced compelling results from her work in Cape Cod, where she has tested 120 homes and their inhabitants for levels of toxicants. Recent work has brought her team to Richmond and Bolinas where the team as tested a number of homes for the presence of toxic chemicals in indoor and outdoor air.
Householders in both towns found the results surprising. Like most people, they assumed that exposures to toxicants occurred primarily if one were to live near an industrial area, a military facility or near the site of some sort of chemical accident. Brody s research indicates that many of us may be additionally exposed to toxicants through the use of products we use everyday, products such as cleaners, personal care products, paints, solvents, or the materials we use in constructing our houses.
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