... was started by a company who not only is the number one producer of cancer causing organic pesticides and NON organic pesticides, but it is also oneo f the 'share holders" in the copyright / trademark of the pink ribbon symbol and financially benefit from its product placement, sales and such.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Breast_Cancer_Awareness_Month
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month -
Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) (also referred to in America as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM)) is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause...
Criticisms
[edit] Corporate Sponsorship
It has been alleged that "the BCAM idea 'was conceived and paid for by a British chemical company that both profits from this epidemic and may be contributing to its cause...'".[13]
Sometimes referred to as National Breast Cancer Industry Month, critics of NBCAM point to a conflict of interest between corporations sponsoring breast cancer awareness while profiting from diagnosis and treatment. The breast cancer advocacy organization, Breast Cancer Action, has said repeatedly in newsletters and other information sources that October has become a public relations campaign that avoids discussion of the causes and prevention of breast cancer and instead focuses on “awareness” as a way to encourage women to get their mammograms. The term pinkwashing has been used by Breast Cancer Action to describe the actions of companies which manufacture and use chemicals which show a link with breast cancer and at the same time publicly support charities focused on curing the disease.[14] Other criticisms center on the marketing of "pink products" and tie ins, citing that more money is spent marketing these campaigns than is donated to the cause.[15]
Cure as "Treatment" vs. "Prevention"
The Cancer Prevention Coalition has criticized the basic message of NBCAM as a form of victim blaming because it focuses on "early detection and treatment" while ignoring environmental factors.[16] According Aaron Blair, Ph.D., chief of the Occupational Epidemiology Branch in National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, For breast cancer, hormone use is one of the major factors affecting risk.[17] According to Rose Marie Williams, a columnist for the Townsend Letter, drug, chemical, and biotechnology companies have a vested interest in treating the disease rather than finding ways to minimize its rate of incidence.[18] Recent studies show that breast cancer is linked to several environmental and genetic factors which can be controlled or mitigated.[19]
imperial chemical industries is the company, now under a different name - " A decade-old multi-million dollar deal between National Breast Cancer Awareness Month sponsors and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) has produced reckless misinformation on breast cancer," stated Dr. Samuel Epstein, a leading international authority on cancer-causing effects of environmental pollutants.
Zeneca Pharmaceutical, a U.S. subsidiary and recent spin-off of ICI, has been the sole funder of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month since 1984. ICI is one of the largest manufacturers of petrochemical and chlorinated organic products, such as acetochlor and vinyl chloride, and the sole manufacturer of Tamoxifen, the world’s top-selling cancer drug used for breast cancer. Financial sponsorship by Zeneca/ICI gives them editorial control over every leaflet, poster, publication, and commercial produced by NBCAM. NBCAM is promoted by the cancer establishment, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society (ACS) with their corporate sponsors.
Imperial Chemical Industries has supported the cancer establishment’s blame-the-victim attitude toward the causes of breast and other cancers. This theory attributes escalating cancer rates to heredity and faulty lifestyle, rather than avoidable exposures to industrial carcinogens contaminating air, water, food, consumer products, and the workplace.
" The ICI/NBCAM public relations campaign has prevented women from knowing of avoidable causes of breast cancer," concluded Dr. Epstein.
Chicago, October 14, 1996-- released by the Cancer Prevention Coalition
CONTACT:
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
Cancer Prevention Coalition
c/o University of Illinois at Chicago
School of Public Health, M/C 922
2121 W. Taylor Street
Chicago, IL 60612
[email protected]
petrochemical and chlorinated organic products, such as acetochlor and vinyl chloride ( as stated above) are one of the number ONE environmental causes for cancers that accumulate and thrive in human breast tissue....
