By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Posted: Monday, January 28, 2008

LETTER
Publication Date: January 28, 2008

This letter appeared in the January 28, 2008 Los Angeles Times:

Whom should parents, as well as your writers, believe: expert endocrinologists, such as textbook author Dr. Paul Kaplowitz, who clearly points at better public health measures and the rise in obesity as reasons [for earlier signs of puberty such as breast development]; or biologist Sandra Streingraber, who conducted research for a group trying to find environmental causes of breast cancer, and who is quoted as stating, "They've introduced all these chemicals into the environment...What are they, nuts?"? Is this the reasoned analysis of a scientist or the backward logic of an activist?

Chemicals are indeed ubiquitous, but their presence in trace amounts in our bodies does not mean that they are behind the change in breast development. This more likely reflects improvements in nutrition, although the latter may have gone too far, given the problems with rising obesity.

Gilbert Ross
New York, NY
The writer is executive and medical director of the American Council on Science and Health.