By Dr. Elizabeth Hess

Let's continue to applaud the community efforts that have been made to help battle the grim statistics women are facing regarding breast cancer.

The community health departments are to be commended for implementing clean-air acts in their counties, as are the employers who have already voluntarily made their workplaces safe for employees. The great majority of the staff in the hospitality industry is made up of young females. Certainly, they deserve the same smoke-free work environment as their peers in other occupations.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in U.S. women, after skin cancer, and is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, after lung cancer. One in eight women - think of that: one in eight - will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. The statistics can be discouraging. Family history, race, age and genetics are risks that women can't change.

But women can lower their risk of breast cancer by changing those risk factors that can be changed. This includes limiting alcohol use, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, avoiding secondhand smoke, and choosing to breast-feed their infants.

Certainly, the hundreds of chemical compounds contained in cigarette smoke have already been labeled as poisonous or carcinogenic and are absolutely linked to causing lung cancer and heart disease.

There is new evidence that links secondhand smoke exposure to a 90 percent increase in breast cancer risk, especially in premenopausal (under age 50) nonsmokers. The most dangerous period of risk seems to be from the adolescent years until the age of first pregnancy when the breast tissue matures. Secondhand-smoke exposure during this time period can cause genetic alterations in the breast tissue when it is the most sensitive.

Where do nonsmoking women get exposed to smoke? Three major environments were identified in the studies. They included childhood exposure to secondhand smoke from parents, adult exposure in the home, and adult occupational or workplace exposure.

Great strides have been made in reducing smoke exposure in the workplace. And for every parent who has stopped smoking, maybe not for their own health, but for the wellness and future of their children, you are to be congratulated. If there weren't reason enough to avoid smoking around your children, protecting your daughters from breast cancer is just one more. Smokers who light up in the home are adding one more risk factor against mothers, wives, sisters and daughters that are already facing pretty tough statistics.

And if you are a smoker, when you look around and count the women in your workplace, see a group of girls on a soccer field, or notice the clusters of females in the church choir, remember the odds: One in eight will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and by refraining from smoking around them you are giving an immeasurable gift to their future wellness.

Hess is a doctor in Clarksburg.

By Dr. Elizabeth Hess

Let's continue to applaud the community efforts that have been made to help battle the grim statistics women are facing regarding breast cancer.

The community health departments are to be commended for implementing clean-air acts in their counties, as are the employers who have already voluntarily made their workplaces safe for employees. The great majority of the staff in the hospitality industry is made up of young females. Certainly, they deserve the same smoke-free work environment as their peers in other occupations.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in U.S. women, after skin cancer, and is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, after lung cancer. One in eight women - think of that: one in eight - will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. The statistics can be discouraging. Family history, race, age and genetics are risks that women can't change.

But women can lower their risk of breast cancer by changing those risk factors that can be changed. This includes limiting alcohol use, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, avoiding secondhand smoke, and choosing to breast-feed their infants.

Certainly, the hundreds of chemical compounds contained in cigarette smoke have already been labeled as poisonous or carcinogenic and are absolutely linked to causing lung cancer and heart disease.

There is new evidence that links secondhand smoke exposure to a 90 percent increase in breast cancer risk, especially in premenopausal (under age 50) nonsmokers. The most dangerous period of risk seems to be from the adolescent years until the age of first pregnancy when the breast tissue matures. Secondhand-smoke exposure during this time period can cause genetic alterations in the breast tissue when it is the most sensitive.

Where do nonsmoking women get exposed to smoke? Three major environments were identified in the studies. They included childhood exposure to secondhand smoke from parents, adult exposure in the home, and adult occupational or workplace exposure.

Great strides have been made in reducing smoke exposure in the workplace. And for every parent who has stopped smoking, maybe not for their own health, but for the wellness and future of their children, you are to be congratulated. If there weren't reason enough to avoid smoking around your children, protecting your daughters from breast cancer is just one more. Smokers who light up in the home are adding one more risk factor against mothers, wives, sisters and daughters that are already facing pretty tough statistics.

And if you are a smoker, when you look around and count the women in your workplace, see a group of girls on a soccer field, or notice the clusters of females in the church choir, remember the odds: One in eight will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and by refraining from smoking around them you are giving an immeasurable gift to their future wellness.

Hess is a doctor in Clarksburg.