LONDON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Women who exercise by doing housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a British study said.

The Cancer Research UK research of more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores offered a better defense against breast cancer than sports or a physical job.

Doctors knew that physical exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer but were uncertain about how much and what types of activities were necessary, the BBC said. Also, much of the research focused on the link between exercise and breast cancer in post-menopausal women.

The study looked at pre- and post-menopausal women and included work, leisure activities and housework. Of the activities, only housework significantly reduced the risk of both pre- and post-menopausal women contracting breast cancer, researchers said. Housework cut breast cancer risk by 30 percent in pre-menopausal women and by 20 in post-menopausal women.

"This study suggests that being physically active may also help reduce the risk and that something as simple and cheap as doing the housework can help," said Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK.

The research was in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention.

Tsunami-warning buoys launched in Pacific

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Six new tsunami reporting stations were deployed in the Pacific Ocean, providing more lead time for U.S. areas at the greatest risk, federal officials said.

The Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami in the southwest Pacific will allow the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide earlier detection of tsunamis traveling long distances to U.S. at-risk areas, such as the coasts of Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, the agency said.

Over the last two years, NOAA said it expanded and upgraded the system to include the Atlantic Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"We have drastically improved our tsunami detection and warning capability since the Indian Ocean tsunami two years ago," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "These buoys are the latest achievement in an ongoing effort to increase the tsunami program at home and abroad."

NOAA joined with the government of Thailand to launch the first DART station in the Indian Ocean in early December, providing real-time tsunami detection as waves travel across open waters.

Study aims to ease natural disaster impact

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A better determination of where natural disasters are likely to occur is the focus of a project at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

"Our goal is to save lives by providing policymakers with the information they need to anticipate and perhaps prevent catastrophic disasters," said Auroop Ganguly of Oak Ridge's Computational Sciences and Engineering Division and project lead. "The insights we're providing can be acted upon to prevent the disasters from becoming catastrophic in terms of loss of lives and property or to the critical civil infrastructure."

Ganguly and his colleagues examined daily observations from 7,900 stations in South America from 1940 to 2004 mapped to spatial grids, paying attention to rainfall extremes and regions with dense populations.

By examining past extremes, researchers developed a predictive tool "that helps us set priorities according to the likelihood of an extreme event," said co-author George Ostrouchov, a mathematician in Oak Ridge's Computational Sciences and Mathematics Division.

Ganguly said the project goes beyond current disaster preparation.

"The risks and impacts from such (weather) extremes may be reduced or even eliminated in some situations through well-designed policies," he said.

Article: Create nanotech safety measures

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Safety experts said more planning is needed to ensure nanotechnology-safe workplaces across the United States in the future.

Little is known about potential risks in many areas of nanotechnology, including worker exposures, said expert Andrew Maynard in an article published in Cleanroom Technology magazine. Maynard is the chief science adviser for Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

"Because nanotechnology is a way of doing or making things rather than a discrete technology, there will never be a one-solution-fits-all approach for nanotechnology and nanomaterials workplace safety," Maynard said.

Maynard recommended the U.S. government invest at least $100 million over the next two years to fill "occupational safety knowledge gaps" in safe nanotechnology workplaces.

Nanotechnology was incorporated into about $30 billion in manufactured goods, and experts predict that number will increase to $2.6 billion by 2014. These nantechnology-based products include computer chips, automobile parts, clothing and cosmetics.

Nanotechnology works with things between 1 and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is 1-billionth of a meter.