With October designated as Breast Cancer Awareness month, pink ribbons seem to be everywhere. Most consumers assume that products like cosmetics or food sporting pink ribbons must be safe.
But that's not necessarily true, according to Breast Cancer Action (BCA) an activist group that condemns "pinkwashers" - a term coined for companies or organizations that "claim to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produce, manufacture and/or sell products that are linked to the disease."
In 2002, BCA launched Think Before You Pink, a campaign calling for transparency and accountability by companies and organizations taking part in breast cancer fundraising and urging consumers to ask critical questions about pink ribbon promotions.
This year one of the targets is Susan G. Komen for the Cure. BCA claims that the world's largest breast cancer organization commissioned a perfume called Promise Me to sell in the name of breast cancer that contains harmful chemicals not listed in the ingredients. In a letter to the president of Komen, Karuna K. Jagger BCA's Executive Director explained that an independent study of the perfume had found galaxolide, toluene and coumarin
Galaxolide is a synthetic musk that accumulates in human fat tissue, acts to disrupt hormones and has been detected in blood, breast milk, and even newborns.
Toluene, which is banned by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA), is a petroleum based solvent and neurotoxin that has been linked to a variety of demonstrated negative health effects by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Coumarin is an anticoagulant initially marketed as a pesticide against rodents, and an additive the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned as a human food additive decades ago.
BCA has named their action to get a recall of the perfume, Raise a Stink.
After receiving the letter from BCA, the Komen organization said that it was taking steps to reformulate the perfume "to remove any doubt about the ingredients." However, in the meantime, the original product is being sold for about $59 in retail stores and online.
Formed in 1990 by Elenore Pred, a breast cancer patient who died one year later, Breast Cancer Action (BCA) is a national grassroots organization made up of patients and their supporters who advocate for "more effective and less toxic breast cancer treatments by shifting the balance of power in the Food and Drug Administration away from the pharmaceutical industry and toward the public interest; decreasing involuntary environmental exposures that put people at risk for breast cancer; and creating awareness that not just genes, but social injustices — political, economic, and racial inequities — lead to disparities in breast cancer outcomes."
The all-volunteer board of directors is made up of many breast cancer survivors.
Past actions have been against Pink Buckets of Fried Chicken, a partnership between Komen and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Yoplait's pink-lidded yoghurt made with dairy stimulated by the hormone rBGH. As a result of the Yoplait action, General Mills did remove rBGH from their products.
For more information about how breast cancer charities are rated, click here
For more information about Think Before You Pink, BCA is sponsoring a webinar next week:
-Thursday October 13 at 1PM Pacific, 3PM Central, 4PM Eastern time. Register here
-This will be repeated on Friday October 14 at 10 AM Pacific, 12 PM Central, 1PM Eastern time. Register here
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