BBC News on Friday examined the practice of "breast ironing" -- which some mothers do to their daughters in Cameroon in an attempt to prevent sexual advances of boys and men -- and a recently launched campaign to curb the practice. According to BBC News, breast ironing involves "pounding and massaging the developing breasts of young girls," most often with a wooden pestle and sometimes with heated bananas or coconut shells. Statistics show that 26% of girls in Cameroon undergo the practice during puberty, BBC News reports. Although people who perform the practice could go to jail for up to three years if a physician determines the breasts have been damaged, the threat of prison "does not always deter mothers who see their daughters hitting puberty earlier and earlier thanks to better living standards," according to BBC News. The Association of Aunties, an organization of teen girls in the country, recently launched a television advertisement campaign aimed at raising awareness of the health problems breast ironing can cause. According to BBC News, there is no research on the medical effects of breast ironing. However, Anderson Doh, director of the government-owned Gynaecological Hospital in Cameroon's capital Yaounde, said, "[I]f you overiron the breast, if you use very hot objects, if you pound on the breast at this tender age when the structures are developing, of course you could also cause damage." BBC News also reported on a woman who ironed her own breasts in an effort to avoid early marriage (Sa'ah, BBC News, 6/23).