The pinkwashing and profitizing of breast cancer

It's that wonderful time of year again, and I'm not talking about the upcoming joyous holiday season. Please forgive my sarcasm, but the reason for my less than mirthful attitude about October is because it's officially National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  I have come to prefer Breast Cancer Action's more accurate designation of National Breast Cancer Industry Month.  

I've shared my feelings about this month-long marketing extravaganza in a previous post, along with a little background on the origin and history of pink ribbons and breast cancer.  You can read more about that here.  Unfortunately, not much has changed in the world of pinkwashing since I wrote that post a year ago. In fact, it appears things are getting worse.

First, however, the good news is that our awareness of this practice is increasing. This is evidenced by the creation of a new word to describe the phenomenon, i.e. pinkwashing. The term comes from a mash up of the words pink - the color of the ribbon used to commemorate breast cancer, and whitewashing - which means to gloss over or cover up vices or scandals (1).  The Urban Dictionary defines pinkwashing as "the use of breast cancer by corporate marketers in which companies promote their products with claims to donate a percentage of proceeds to the cause" (2). In the spirit of creating new words, let's throw in "profitizing" while we're at it because that's exactly the action that is occurring in what has become the industry known as breast cancer.

Now the bad news. Sadly, it's no longer uncommon for corporations to put profits before the welfare of people. However, things have gone from strange to bizarre considering the fact that joining the long line of companies marketing their products under the pink ribbon is the queen of breast cancer charities - the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.  Evidently, the Komen Foundation has enlisted a company to manufacture a fragrance for them called Promise Me (4).  The slogan listed on the ShopKomen webpage reads, "purchase with purpose to end breast cancer forever" (4).  Have you ever wondered how much of the purchase price of a product that is marketed as "pink" actually goes toward the noble mission to "end breast cancer forever"? At ShopKomen it's 25% (5) (see the small print at bottom of the Komen webpage).

Now, if you're reading this blog you are probably clued in to the fact that the beauty industry is unregulated and as a result most beauty care products, including fragrances, contain chemicals that are proven to be unhealthy. Can you believe that the safety testing of personal care products is left up to the manufacturers? You read that correctly! According to the Environmental Working Group, they police themselves. So, considering this revelation, it will probably come as no surprise to learn that the original Komen Promise fragrance contained at least 2 chemical toxins (8):
• Galaxolide – a synthetic musk that works as a hormone or endocrine disruptor and has been detected in blood, breast milk, and even newborns.
• Toluene – a potent neurotoxicant linked to a variety of demonstrated negative health effects and is widely known as one of the toxic trio. Toluene is banned by the International Fragrance Association.

HELLO!! Endocrine disrupting chemicals are linked to cancer (6). This is outrageous and appalling to me. The Susan G. Komen Foundation is an organization whose mission is to "eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by advancing research, education, screening, and treatment" (3), yet they are marketing and selling a product containing chemicals that are suspected cancer causing agents.

That's why at this wonderful time of year, when everything is awash in pink, it is especially important to "think before you pink." This phrase, coined by Breast Cancer Action, suggests we ask the following questions before we generously support a charity or buy a pink ribbon product (9):

1. Where does the money raised by pink ribbon products go?
2. How much money goes towards breast cancer programs and services?
3. How are the funds being raised? For example, is it through the sale of cosmetics that contain potential cancer causing chemicals?
4. What types of programs are being supported? Is the money being used to conduct research to understand the causes of breast cancer, or in support of the prevention of the disease?

Check out the video below and please spread the word. Let's join together to let those who are choosing to profit from this disease that we won't be pinkwashed anymore!

Sources
(1) Wikipedia - definition of whitewashing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewash_%28censorship%29
(2) Urban Dictionary - pinkwashing - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pinkwashing
(3) Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1508105/ 
(4) Shop Komen - http://www.shopkomen.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=1687
(5) Shop Komen homepage - http://www.shopkomen.com/
(6) http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/2011/04/13/why-this-matters/
(7) Endocrine Society - http://www.endo-society.org/journals/scientificstatements/upload/edc_scientific_statement.pdf
(8) Breast Cancer Action - Think before you pink - https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6098/p/salsa/web/thank_you_page/public/thankYou.sjs?thank_you_page_KEY=1654
(9) http://bcaction.org/our-take-on-breast-cancer/politics-of-breast-cancer/the-cancer-industry/#anchor2 
 

What's on the label?

In my quest for wellness I've started taking a closer look at exactly what is in many of the products I use daily. Needless to say I was overwhelmed. Scanning the labels it all seemed like a foreign language to me. I set out to decipher these strange words, and after doing an internet search discovered something called endocrine disrupter chemicals (EDC's).

According to the National Institute of Environmental Sciences, EDC's are "substances in our environment, food, and consumer products that interfere with hormone biosynthesis, metabolism, or action resulting in a deviation from normal homeostatic control or reproduction." Well, that's a mouthful, but the take away is "a deviation from the norm." That doesn't sound good.

Considering that most cosmetics enter the body through the skin, my skin is my largest organ and I use most of these products daily, I decided to narrow my focus to personal care products for now. To make matters worse, I discovered that the cosmetics industry is unregulated. Naively, I thought that they would fall under some regulating agency like the FDA. The reality is the cosmetics industry can call anything natural or herbal even if it contains things that are far from it. For example, most shampoos, lotions, soaps, and cosmetics contain paraben or phenoxyethanol (EDC's), even the so-called natural products.

So what's a hair product, fragrance loving girl to do? Well, if you're politically minded you could get involved in the campaign for safe cosmetics. You can also begin by eliminating just one product at a time from your beauty regimen. Stop using the cosmetic that contains the most EDC's and that you use most frequently and replace it with something that doesn't contain EDc's. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has some great info on their website to help get started. Just click on the post title to view it.

It's been frustrating trying to find personal care products that don't contain EDC's, but I keep reminding myself that small changes can have a big impact. This is especially important considering the cumulative amounts of EDC exposure received through the daily use of these products on our skin. In this case the price of beauty is more than skin deep.

PS I did find a great body lotion at our local herbal pharmacy. Just email me if you're interested.

Sources:
For more information check out http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/docs/endocrine.pdf and http://www.ewg.org/files/EWG_cosmeticsguide.pdf
http://e.hormone.tulane.edu/learning/learning.html
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm