Breast cancer will be discussed Oct. 11

Author Sabrina McCormick will speak

p.m. Oct. 11 at the Toms River library, 101 Washington St., about environmental links to breast cancer.

McCormick's book, "No Family History: The Environmental Links to Breast Cancer," makes a case for linking exposure to everyday products such as cosmetics and toiletries, hormones in food, household cleaners and pesticides to the increased incidence of breast cancer. It urges women, advocates and policymakers to focus on prevention by reducing one's exposure to those environmental factors.

She also takes the big business of breast cancer that has developed recently to task. She claims that while dollars continue to pour into the search for a cure, companies that profit from this, including some pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, may be contributors to the environmental causes of breast cancer.

Those profits, she argues, drive the public to focus on the cure rather than prevention, and she concludes that is the wrong approach.

McCormick earned a doctoral degree from Brown University. She specializes in environmental and medical sociology.

A Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, McCormick also directed and produced the independent feature-length documentary, "No Family History."

This program is free and open to the public. Registration is required. For more information or to register, visit www.theoceancountylibrary. org or call 732-349-6200.