Pink Ribbons, Inc

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End the Pink Ribbon Campaign

Agreed, 1,000 per cent. Time to end the pink ribbon campaign once and for all. All good campaigns have a shelf life. This one is done and over. Time to focus attention on something far more productive that actually helps people and tells the truth. There aren't any known cures for cancer. There are only treatments, which, as the author points out, have remained fairly consistent: cut, poison and burn.


Finding the cause suggests prevention, and to be crass and cynical, prevention just isn't sexy, and it tends to step on toes.

But the other side of the story is the research itself and what it's pointing to: that what causes cancer -- most frustratingly -- can vary from person to person, even with the same exposures to the same carcinogens.

I'd much rather that some fundraising campaigns be directed to helping women with breast cancer who lose their jobs and who can't pay the rent and their mortgages, who can't afford the drugs, who can't find the energy to cook and clean, who don't have the energy to look after the kids... you know, real, meaningful, on the ground practical help. Sadly, that's not sexy either.

Frances more than 10 years ago

Pink Ribbons, Inc

Not long ago I witnessed a group of jolly Royal Bank workers on the sidewalk outside their bank in Sidney, B.C.. They had a BBQ set up and were selling hot dogs and pop to passersby. " All proceeds going to the BC Cancer Society", a sign said. Another said, "Help find a cure for cancer!" When I suggested that maybe they could try selling less carcinogenic food as a fund raiser I was met with cold stares - what a party pooper! What's with the celebratory air at these events? It's the same with "Fun Runs". Has everyone forgotten that these events are about cancer, a merciless, crap shoot disease? What's to celebrate? Then, as Osborne mentions, there's the corporate take-over of the disease. Even a piece of chewing gum containing aspartame now comes branded with the pink ribbon, an image that's taken on a bizarre sacredness. Patty Osborne is not only bang on in her essay, she's "dead" right. Let's focus on the causes of cancer - what we breathe, stick in our mouths, rub on our bodies, for starters...

M.A.C. Farrant more than 10 years ago

pink ribbons and breast cancer

The world's leading cause of all cancers is never even on the list when any cancer is discussed - radiation. Radiation dangers have been known for decades with Rachel Carson (Silent Spring, 1963), Rosalie Bertell (No Immediate Danger, 1985), Helen Caldicott (Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, 2007, and countless scientists whose work is largely ignored by governments and corporations.
Radiation is everywhere, including naturally from the sun, which is mitigated by our ozone layer and by our own practices of limiting sun exposure. That is not the problem, the problem is the ever growing use of radioactive substances for everything including this computer, your cell phone, television and all other electronics, the x-rays you have at a physician's or dentist's office, nuclear waste which remains radioactive for up to billions of years, and of course, the only one we are really concerned about apparently, nuclear weapons, but all nuclear use is a weapon that is slowly killing and unpleasantly mutating us and all life. ALL of these are increasing and we have no idea, for the next 10 years or so, just how much damage will be caused by the Japan accident last year, because many of the cancers and mutations will only begin becoming evident in large numbers then. And of course, by then, the spokespeople will deny any connection to Fukushima and the earthquake of 2011.
Please, readers, make a difference in the uses and decrease the acceptance of nuclear/radioactive substances wherever they are being advertised - who does not want an iphone or a blackberry, as the first example of good advertising of harmful products?

Janet E Smith more than 10 years ago

Cancerland

This immediately reminds me of Barbara Ehrenreich excellent 2001 Harper's article "Welcome to Cancerland" http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/cancerland.htm

Thad McIlroy more than 10 years ago

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