Everyone deserves to live in a healthy and safe environment. That environment includes where you live, work, play, and pray. We reject and actively push back against racist rhetoric, actions, policies and institutional oppression that leads to state-sanctioned brutality, gun violence, and harm that again and again assaults communities, particularly communities of color. We are committed to working for justice and equity, and are in solidarity with social, racial, and environmental justice organizations to build community, understanding and honest dialogue to address the root causes of violence, harm and hate.

Think Before You Pink: Toxic Time is Up

Breast Cancer Action Toxic Time

Think Before You Pink: Toxic Time is Up

 Breast Cancer Action

Annie Sartor
Policy & Campaigns Coordinator
Breast Cancer Action

Why is the breast cancer epidemic still raging after 30 years of “awareness” and pink ribbon products?

Each year, corporations pack the shelves with pink ribbon products, surrounding us with “breast cancer awareness” messages. These products help to raise billions of dollars in the name of breast cancer, and yet more than 40,000 women in the U.S. still die of the disease every year. And many corporations sell pink ribbon products in the name of breast cancer that actually contain chemicals linked to an increased risk of the disease. At Breast Cancer Action, we call this blatant hypocrisy “pinkwashing.”

For 12 years, Breast Cancer Action’s Think Before You Pink® campaign has held corporations accountable for their toxic pink ribbon products. This year, it’s time to say we’ve had enough. Instead of targeting pinkwashers one at a time, it’s time to go straight to the source—the chemicals in these products that are making us sick in the first place.

Do you have any idea how many toxic chemicals are in the average pink ribbon product? Nope? Neither do we. Nor does anyone!
Think Before You Pink
All anyone knows for certain is that only a small handful—about 200 of the over 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States—have been tested for human safety. And that’s a serious problem for all of us. These chemicals are found in everyday consumer products such as plastics, paint, clothing, and cleaning supplies, including an unknown number of pink ribbon products being sold in the name of breast cancer.

Evidence of the links between environmental toxins and cancer continues to mount. In 2010, the President’s Cancer Panel reported that “the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated [and]…the American people—even before they are born—are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures.” And just this week, yet another study came out showing an even stronger link between BPA and breast cancer than we’d previously thought.

Why is pinkwashing so prevalent, and even possible in the first place? Our current chemical policy, the Toxic Substances Control Act, is extremely outdated and woefully inadequate to protect public health from hazardous chemicals in our daily lives. Thanks to a large coalition of health activists, environmentalists, scientists, and thousands of others, pressure has continued to mount for reform of this outdated and toothless law. If strong TSCA reform legislation moves forward this fall, we will have a real opportunity to enact a bill that could make history and be the biggest win for cancer prevention we’ve ever seen.

We refuse to waste another October watching corporations make money off pink ribbon products that contain toxins linked to breast cancer.

Please join us in taking a stand to protect all of us from toxic chemicals that are making us sick, because the manufacturers of pink ribbon products certainly won’t. Sign our petition to end pinkwashing once and for all via strong chemical regulations. It’s time to turn our outrage over pinkwashing into action and ban the toxins that make us sick in the first place.

9 Responses

  1. Pingback : Think Before You Pink: Toxic Time is Up – Women’s Voices for the Earth | sondasmcschatter

  2. Amy Todisco

    The hypocrisy of this issue has always annoyed me. It seems like it’s just been a phony way for some companies to feel good, or try and make themselves look good to the public without doing the right thing.

  3. Genny LaMorgan

    There are more environmental cancers than genetic ones! Time to address the real cause of breast cancers! It is plastics and pesticides, and food additives and colorings. All carcinogens!

  4. Gabriele Schwartz

    Thanks for all the efforts to expose manufactures harming people. Coming from marketing, people are so fooled by advertising and have no idea how branded they are. Really sad that people can’t figure out simple things like reading a label and finding out what those ingredients are.

    Healthy homes are not that hard to have.
    Gabi

  5. Janie

    Not meaning to sound like an infomercial but the company I am partnered with offers toxin and carcinogenic free products… household, personal body care and the best vitamins/supplements on the market — over 85% soluble in your system (not flushed down the drain). They are also available at prices comparable to your local grocery store. MY MISSION: educate as many people as I can and enlighten them to a healthy alternative. It is never too late to detox your home,& make it and your environment a safer place to be.

  6. Pingback : Toxic Time is Up! We Delivered Nearly 32,000 Signatures Yesterday | Breast Cancer Action

  7. Pingback : Think Before You Pink » Toxic Time is Up! We Delivered Nearly 32,000 Signatures Yesterday

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