Breast cancer -- how about a dose of prevention?

As you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The whole idea of pinkwashing everything disturbs me. The campaign to go bra-less to promote awareness bothers me. Companies spending obscene amounts of money to turn everything pink dumbfounds me. You see, everyone is already aware of breast cancer. We don't need more awareness. What we need is prevention and awareness of what that entails. 

I wish Terry, a woman I met tonight, had known about prevention. I saw her sitting at the bar while my husband and I were having dinner. She looked lonely and distraught. I asked our server to put her tab on our bill and I paid it. A few minutes later, Terry approached our table. She was near tears. She thanked me and I stood up and hugged her. She explained she was going through radiation for breast cancer. She'd already had her left breast removed. "I wish they'd done a bilateral mastectomy," she said. But they hadn't and now she's facing radiation, chemo, another mastectomy, and radiation again. She was aware of breast cancer... intimately aware. But maybe, just maybe, being aware of ways to eliminate risks could have prevented this re-occurrence. My heart was heavy for Terry as we hugged again. I paid a simple bar tab. I wish I could have done more.

The EWG (Environmental Working Group) just published a guide called Reducing Exposures at Home: Choosing Healthy Cleaners. Do you want to limit your risk of developing breast cancer? Then you need to start paying attention to the toxic substances in your home, workplace, and personal care products. 

The EWG guide offers a good place to start. And, of course, if you follow Vinegar Fridays (first Friday of every month) or search the archives, you'll find more ways to limit your risk. And by all means, stay away from some of the toxic products dressed in pink... they just might kill you.

Keeping it green and healthy,

TBT -- A Pink Ribbon Screamfest

It's Throwback Thursday. Today, I'm revisiting a post from October 2012 that is as true today as it was back then. Actually, it's truer, since my stepdaughters lost their own mother to breast cancer six months ago. Today, when I read that Susan G. Komen has teamed up with fracking company Baker Hughes to make pink drill bits, I realized we all just have to keep raising awareness... not about breast cancer (we all know about breast cancer, right?), but about this money-making pinkwashing that's going on. It's making people rich, folks. And we need to stop buying into it. No amount of pink ribbons or pink drill bits is going to stop this horrific disease. We need to learn how to reduce our risk.

If I were dressing up for Halloween, I think I might dress up like a pink ribbon. After all, what’s scarier than the toxins lurking underneath many of the pink ribbons in the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign? Seriously. There are carcinogens in so many of the products boasting awareness ribbons. 

“Here, buy this product and we’ll donate a dollar to research for a cure… What?... Oh that? It’s nothing to be concerned about… A carcinogen? Nah. There’s such a trace amount. It really won’t hurt you. Besides, what we’re focusing on is a cure, not prevention!”

Like I said, what could be scarier? 

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t believe in trying to find a cure. But these companies seem to be going about it backwards. They’re on a sort of hamster wheel. Cause cancer, cure cancer. Cause cancer, cure cancer. Round and round they go, and while they’re chasing their tails, 40,000 women in the United States alone are dying each year. Perhaps, had they spent some of that money changing their formulas for their products so they didn’t include carcinogens, we could see some significant drops in those tragic statistics.

And the statement "The best protection is early detection" slogan makes me want to puke. No, folks, the best protection is prevention. Period.

I purposely won’t buy any products, if I can help it, that are part of the Pink Ribbon Campaign. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care. My own sister had breast cancer a few years ago. My husband’s first wife is battling the disease right now (note: she died April 5, 2014). And my daughter’s mother-in-law lost her battle to cancer just a few short months ago, right after her 51^st birthday. 

Fortunately, there is an organization that has the same philosophy as I have. They view October as Breast Cancer Prevention Month. Notice the difference… Prevention, not Awareness. Awareness is bizarre, when you think about it. Who isn’t already aware? We don’t need to spend money raising awareness. We need to learn about Prevention.  

The Breast Cancer Fund is all about prevention. They believe that each of us has the power to do more:

“With personal action we can reduce our own risk, and with collective action we can bring about policies that put the health of people and the planet above politics and profit.”

That’s what it’s all about, folks!

Please visit the Breast Cancer Fund website and Facebook page and learn why they believe “prevention is power.” Move beyond the pink ribbons!

The government is not going to protect you. The corporations are not going to protect you. The pharmaceutical companies are not going to protect you. The only person who has the power to protect you is YOU!!!

 

Learn how.

Skipping the pink ribbons altogether, and wishing the best for all of you,

A pink ribbon screamfest

If I were dressing up for Halloween, I think I might dress up like a pink ribbon. After all, what’s scarier than the toxins lurking underneath many of the pink ribbons in the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign? Seriously. There are carcinogens in so many of the products boasting awareness ribbons. 

“Here, buy this product and we’ll donate a dollar to research for a cure… What?... Oh that? It’s nothing to be concerned about… A carcinogen? Nah. There’s such a trace amount. It really won’t hurt you. Besides, what we’re focusing on is a cure, not prevention!”

Like I said, what could be scarier? 

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t believe in trying to find a cure. But these companies seem to be going about it backwards. They’re on a sort of hamster wheel. Cause cancer, cure cancer. Cause cancer, cure cancer. Round and round they go, and while they’re chasing their tails, 40,000 women in the United States alone are dying each year. Perhaps, had they spent some of that money changing their formulas for their products so they didn’t include carcinogens, we could see some significant drops in those tragic statistics.

And the statement "The best protection is early detection" slogan makes me want to puke. No, folks, the best protection is prevention. Period.

I purposely won’t buy any products, if I can help it, that are part of the Pink Ribbon Campaign. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care. My own sister had breast cancer a few years ago. My husband’s first wife is battling the disease right now. And my daughter’s mother-in-law lost her battle to cancer just a few short months ago, right after her 51^st birthday. 

Fortunately, there is an organization that has the same philosophy as I have. They view October as Breast Cancer Prevention Month. Notice the difference… Prevention, not Awareness. Awareness is bizarre, when you think about it. Who isn’t already aware? We don’t need to spend money raising awareness. We need to learn about Prevention.  

The Breast Cancer Fund is all about prevention. They believe that each of us has the power to do more:

“With personal action we can reduce our own risk, and with collective action we can bring about policies that put the health of people and the planet above politics and profit.”

That’s what it’s all about, folks!

Please visit the Breast Cancer Fund website and Facebook page and learn why they believe “prevention is power.” Move beyond the pink ribbons!

The government is not going to protect you. The corporations are not going to protect you. The pharmaceutical companies are not going to protect you. The only person who has the power to protect you is YOU!!!

 

Learn how.

Skipping the pink ribbons altogether, and wishing the best for all of you,

Hana