It happens every three minutes. She looks down at her breasts, at first with disbelief, then with fear.

Statistically, every three minutes in America, another woman is given the diagnosis of breast cancer. This year alone, over 180,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and over 43,000 women will die from the disease.

Breast cancer is a disease of tremendous significance because it is the most common cancer among women of all ages and it is the leading cause of death, from all causes, of women between the ages of 35 and 54.

Known risk factors for the disease, such as family history and age at menstruation, explain fewer than one in three cases. Consequently, there has been much confusion about the causes and treatment of breast cancer.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month — a month aimed at increasing awareness, education, early detection, funding and research. Women, doctors, researchers, families and survivors are attempting to clear up some of the confusion surrounding breast cancer.

That’s wonderful news, especially for the 180,000 women who will be diagnosed this year.

Unfortunately, almost all of the attention is focused on the treatment of breast cancer rather than on the cause and prevention. While the treatment is very important, we can- not hope to prevent the increasing incidence of breast cancer until we find the cause.

And the incidence of breast cancer is increasing.

In 1960, the lifetime risk for a woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer was one in 20. Now it is one in eight. I find it rather disturbing that breast cancer incidence has increased so dramatically in just 30-something years. There must be a contributing factor.

It is known that a woman’s lifestyle, aging process and heredity affects the likelihood of cancer; however, there also may be another major contributing factor: exposure to environmental pollution.

An increasing number of researchers, doctors and breast cancer survivors believe there is a direct relationship between the rising rates of breast cancer and the proliferation of toxins in our air, water and food. A series of epidemiological studies suggest environmental factors cause from 70 to 90 percent of all cancers.

Furthermore, scientific evidence indicates that certain industrial pollutants mimic hormones, particularly estrogen. These chemicals, called “xeno-estrogens,” are found in items we use everyday, such as gasoline, weed killers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, fuels and some plastics.

Over time, accumulated exposure to xeno-estrogens may result in abnormal cell activity. Certain xeno-estrogens may increase aberrant cell growth, resulting in cancer. Xeno-estrogens are created in factories; however, they often end up in our food through direct application of chemicals to crops or through pollution of soil, air and water.

Even dangerous pesticides banned in the United States, such as DDT, still find their way back to our bodies in imported fruits and vegetables, since pesticides that are illegal in the U.S. are still being used in other countries.

Although there is a scientific link between the increasing rates of breast cancer and the increasing amounts of toxins in our environment, this evidence has been met with controversy and, thus, has received little public attention.

I realize it is controversial to suggest environmental pollution may increase the incidence of breast cancer. However, the controversy of whether toxins like DDT can affect a woman’s risk of breast cancer is beginning to have a positive benefit.

The controversy finally has directed serious attention to the issue. Studies in progress are exploring the relationship between environmental pollution and breast-cancer risk.

These studies include agriculture health research, which studies 70,000 farmers and family members in Iowa, North Carolina and New York.

We need to provide more funding for continued research in order to find the answers.

We also need to continue the education and awareness. We need to encourage monthly breast self-examination, annual clinical breast exams after age 20 and mammograms for women past the age of 40 who have a family history of breast cancer. We need to encourage healthier diets and more exercise.

And we need to look at all possible contributing factors, no matter how controversial.

Winona LaDuke, an activist named by Time Magazine as one of America’s most promising leaders under the age of 40, told an ISU audience last February, “Women should be outraged by the increased incidence of breast cancer. All women should be environmental activists, trying to stop the poisoning of our bodies.

She is right. She is right because breast cancer could attack you, your mother, your sister, your best friend, your aunt, your grandmother, your girlfriend or your wife.

We need to stop the polluting attack on the earth in the event it is causing a cancerous attack on women’s breasts.

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Jonquil Wegmann is a senior in community and regional planning from Bellevue.