It's not cell phones, hair dye, or that alphabet soup of environmental contaminants you should worry about when it comes to breast cancer, according to the most comprehensive report yet on breast cancer risks released today by the Institute of Medicine. It's all those things you already know -- lack of exercise, too much alcohol, obesity and hormones that are most likely to cause breast cancer, the report concluded.

Tumor detected by mammogram. Star Tribune photo.

Those who hoped to finally get some answers about the links between breast cancer and environment will be disappointed. The panel of scientists who spent two years reviewing all the available studies found no conclusive evidence that toxins in air pollution, food, water and consumer products are a risk factor. They said many of them need more research.

Among them are perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, the 3M toxin that has contaminated ground water in the east metro area of the Twin Cities, and a handful of other communities in the U.S. The panel said that there is a
"biological plausibility" they can cause cancer. That means the scientists recognized a mechanism in animals by which it could case breast cancer, but that there is insufficient information to measure the risk for breast cancer. BPA is another widely feared industrial compound found in consumer products that also fell into that category.

But hair dye, cell phones and microwave ovens were taken off the list of suspects.

As in most of medicine, science, in short, has done a better job of figuring out how to treat the disease rather than prevent it, said Dr. Michael Thun, senior epidemiologist for the American Cancer Society, who helped review the report. Breast cancer death rates in the U.S. fell 31 percent from 1990 to 2007, but incidence rates declined only about 5 percent, according to an AP report.

In short, stay tuned for more pink stuff. The $1 million report was commissioned and funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the organization that invented the pink ribbon and everything else breast cancer awareness campaign. The dearth of new information in the IOM report has been inspirational, according to its president, Elizabeth Thompson:

For more comprehensive news stories on this go to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal. and AP