Seeing Deception Is Your Only Protection :: Healthy Lifestyles and Natural Weight Loss Information

Seeing Deception Is Your Only Protection
by author Sherrill Sellman, ND

Every October since 1985, the pink ribbon, symbol of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), is seen everywhere.

It is prominently displayed on TV ads, posters, and in women’s magazines. Women proudly pin the pink ribbon to their blouses. The pink ribbon has become synonymous with support, courage, and caring.

During National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, multitudes of fundraising runs, hikes, walks, and other events raise over a hundred million dollars towards the goal of conquering breast cancer. High-profile companies such as Avon, Lee Denim, Revlon, Ford, and Yoplait Yogurt all get into the act by donating a very small percentage of their profits from designated goods or services. By far the largest organization associated with NBCAM, and the one with the highest profile, is the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which has been hugely successfully in sponsoring over one hundred fundraising runs with over 1.5 million participants worldwide.

Breast cancer is a modern day epidemic (what used to be a one-in-20 incidence is now one in nine in Canada and one in eight in the US) with an estimated 21,200 Canadian women being diagnosed with the disease this year. Tragically, 5,200 of those women will die from it. Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in Canadian women and the incidence continues to climb at the rate of two percent each year.

So let’s all join in, don those running shoes, proudly display our pink ribbons, and take to the roads, right? Hang on a minute. Before you get swept up by the emotional frenzy of this call to arms, there is something you must know.

Who’s Behind the Pink Ribbon?

As the primary multimillion-dollar corporate sponsor of NBCAM, pharmaceutical giant AtraZeneca, formerly Zeneca before merging with Swedish pharmaceutical Astra, was owned by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), a leading international manufacturer of industrial chemicals and carcinogenic pesticides. ICI manufactures the plastic ingredient polyvinyl chloride, which has been directly linked to breast cancer and the pesticide acetochlor, classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a “probably human carcinogen.”

AstraZeneca also manufactures pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. ICI and AstraZeneca’s chemical plants daily release potential cancer-causing pollution into the environment. And, to top off their profitable investments, AstraZeneca also owns Salick Health Care, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca, provides consulting services, and manages the operation of numerous comprehensive cancer care facilities throughout the United States.

There is deafening silence by all NBCAM programs when it comes to telling women about environmental carcinogens. After all, if it became general knowledge that AstraZeneca’s chemical products and factories directly contribute to the breast cancer epidemic, it would certainly sully their well-oiled PR campaign.

Many experts predicted decades ago that widespread use of synthetic chemicals would increase cancer rates. From 1940 through the 1980s, billions of tons of toxic chemicals were released into the environment. These toxic time bombs are now found in everything and everywhere.

Scientists at the 23rd Congress of the International Association for Breast Cancer Research reported in 2001 (Breast Cancer Research, 2001) that chlorine-based chemicals were linked to the breast cancer epidemic. Their findings revealed that women with the highest concentrations of chlorine-based pesticides in their blood and fat have breast cancer risks four to 10 times higher than women with lower concentrations.

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Sherrill Sellman, ND, is author of Hormone Heresay: What Women MUST Know About Their Hormones (Getwell International, 2000) and What Women MUST Know to Protect Their Daughters from Breast Cancer (GetWell International, 2004). Visit ssellman.com.

Source: alive #264, October 2004

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