Jump to full article: The Washington Post, 2008-02-21
Author: Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 20, 2008; Page A04
Intro: Women who live in neighborhoods with large amounts of nighttime illumination are more likely to get breast cancer than those who live in areas where nocturnal darkness prevails, according to an unusual study that overlaid satellite images of Earth onto cancer registries.
The finding adds credence to the hypothesis that exposure to too much light at night can raise the risk of breast cancer by interfering with the brain's production of a tumor-suppressing hormone. . . .
They obtained satellite data from NASA that showed in great detail how much light was emitted spaceward from neighborhoods throughout Israel. . . .
The team then overlaid that map with local statistics on cases of breast cancer and, for comparison, lung cancer, which is caused mostly by smoking and so would not be expected to be linked to light. . . .
the researchers found no link between night lighting and lung cancer, they report in this week's online issue of the journal Chronobiology International.
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