If we truly want to save lives, we must shift our attention from curing breast cancer to preventing it. This means reducing exposures to pesticides and hormones in food, ingredients in personal care products, and air-borne pollutants, which all raise the risk of breast cancer.

President Obama recently declared a new commitment to cure cancer. As the biggest killer of middle-aged women, breast cancer is high on that agenda. But how to approach the war on breast cancer is a serious question. Rates have gone up from one in 20 women to one in eight since 1971. Something is clearly wrong in our approach.

If we truly want to save lives, we must shift our attention from curing cancer to preventing it. This means understanding what causes it and reducing exposures to these causes. Pesticides and hormones in food, ingredients in personal care products, and air-borne pollutants all contribute to breast cancer risk. They are all hormone mimics, meaning that they act like estrogen in the body, increasing the likelihood that mammary tumors will grow.

The European Union has been reviewing and regulating hormone mimics while the United States has willfully ignored them. The paraben family is one example. Methylparaben, ethylparaben and polyparaben, used as preservatives, are common ingredients in personal care products. If you take a look in your own bathroom, you are likely to find them. Europe disallowed the production of methylparaben in 2004 and has continued questioning the others. Meanwhile, America has yet to even figure out which agency should watch over our personal care products. Most people think the Food and Drug Administration does it. However, the FDA clearly states that it does not have this mandate. Rather, the industry self-regulates.

Legislation has recently been introduced to remove cancer-causing chemicals from baby products, but why stop there? Women and girls should not have to check the label of every product they use to ensure they are safe. Often the most problematic ingredients are masked behind the term “fragrance” or not listed at all.

To date, our nation has been devoted to improved treatment and detection for breast cancer. However, expanded and improved mammography does not prevent breast cancer, since once a tumor is present, the cancer already exists. Mammograms can, but do not always, help detect a tumor early, yet a large percentage of women who find a tumor will still die of the disease.

Winning the war on breast and many other cancers requires a different strategy – one that seeks to prevent cancer before it starts. We must establish regulations that decrease exposures to cancer-causing chemicals in our food, air, water and personal care products. This should include legislation that takes control of cosmetics out of industry hands and puts it into the FDA’s.

A renewed commitment to cure cancer could be the difference between life and death for many Americans. To be successful, we need to start at the source.

Sabrina McCormick is the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at University of Pennsylvania and author of  No Family History: The Environmental Links to Breast Cancer