Inside Prevention

Guest blog: What's a mother to do?

By Lena Brook

I thought that I was in the clear. That I dodged some bullets. I had two healthy pregnancies, during which I tried to do all the right things: I avoided gas stations and mainstream cleaning products. I didn’t color my hair, polish my nails or smoke.  Now nine years later, I have two healthy and thriving little girls, and we try to create a healthy home together.

But then two weeks ago, I found myself at the 20th Anniversary celebration of the Breast Cancer Fund. The Breast Cancer Fund fights to get scientists, the medical establishment and policy makers to pay as much attention to the cause of breast cancer as the cure. During the evening, I was reminded once again how vulnerable women are to environmental exposure to chemicals, how our breast tissue is particularly sensitive. And most importantly, how puberty is a crucial window of vulnerability for girls, opening up channels of influence to chemicals much like those months in-utero. Only now our kids are older, a little more out of our grasp and control than when they were babies. Breast Cancer Fund President Jeanne Rizzo's speech shook me to the core. Suddenly, it feels like that bullet is coming right at me again.

My older daughter is on the cusp of puberty at 9 years old, my younger just a few years behind. All of those potent feelings I experienced during my pregnancies and their babyhood came flooding back. The momentary and false sense of control—if only I can buy the right sunscreen/feed them the right foods/clean with the right products, I can avoid unwanted exposures to environmental toxins like mercury, bisphenol A, phthalates, or flame retardants.  But now we know that exposure to these chemicals is beyond the control of any of us alone.

We as a society, for reasons complex yet unfolding, are foisting young girls into the turmoil of puberty long before they are developmentally ready. In 2010, researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center published a report on the effects of chemicals found in products we all have at home, like nail polish, cosmetics, perfume, lotion and shampoo. The results show a direct relationship between use of these products and early puberty development in girls. Studies have also linked early onset puberty to common household items, and foods like dairy and fish.

If only we collectively decided to honor their bodies’ natural trajectories and let them remain little girls for as long as was meant to be. As long as girls have over the course of history. Now, history is apparently a moving target, as implied by the title of a recent New York Times Magazine article on the topic of early puberty: “Puberty Before Age 10: A New ‘Normal’?” An article that unfortunately failed to mention any solutions to the problem of early puberty, like changing the way our country regulates the use of chemicals.

Which brings me to policy change, which is more imperative than ever. We know that changing our personal eating/cleaning/makeup/chemical use habits will only get us so far. As consumers, we should push the personal care, household products, and agricultural industries in the right direction. But at the same time, our legislators need to act to reform the outdated and broken 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act and pass the new, updated Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, which focuses on children’s health as a benchmark for chemical safety. Authored by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and co-sponsored by 16 Senators, the Act will increase the safety of chemicals used in consumer products, and protect those most vulnerable to chemical exposure, like women and children.

Take action today to let your elected officials know there is strong public support for changing the way we regulate chemicals in the United States.

As for me, enough is enough. I don’t want my daughters dodging the same bullets for their daughters someday.

Lena Brook has advocated for environmental health and justice for over ten years with organizations like Clean Water Action, Health Care Without Harm and Physicians for Social Responsibility. She’s currently a strategic communications consultant with HavenBMedia in San Francisco and can be found blogging about all things related to food at A Happier Meal.

Summiting for survivors (Daily Pilot, 5/26/2012)

Lori Fallace, 2012 Climb Against the Odds team member from Irvine, is the subject of a new article in the Daily Pilot:

Fallace, Irvine Unified School District 2012 middle school teacher of the year, has taught science and health classes for years. Before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, Fallace thought that she knew all there was to taking care of her body.

Now she knows a whole lot more.

Since beating the cancer after six months of chemotherapy, Fallace has become a voice for the Breast Cancer Fund, a national nonprofit that advocates for the prevention of breast cancer through increasing education and lowering risk factors. (Read complete article.)

Go Lori! To learn more about Climb Against the Odds and this year's team, visit the event website. The climb is just three weeks away!

In memory of Wanna Wright, breast cancer prevention advocate extraordinaire

Wanna Wright, J.D.
December 11, 1944 – May 19, 2012

Wanna Wright was the heart and soul of our work at the Breast Cancer Fund for nearly two decades, serving on our board of directors with great distinction. We started calling Wanna our Poet Laureate in 1999 when she wrote “Alive /to Testify,” a powerful poem that expresses her deep concern for the health disparities faced by the low-income communities and communities of color that she was part of and worked on behalf of every day. "I's got to reach out to keep 'em alive, din you can teach 'em to testify 'bout de air an de waters dat's killin us daughtus," she wrote.

A breast cancer survivor and tireless advocate, Wanna volunteered her time, knowledge and heartfelt concern to speak out about the unconscionable rates of breast cancer incidence and mortality, especially among African-American women. She advocated for early detection, treatment and equitable access to care, and she helped shape the Breast Cancer Fund’s environmental health mission to prevent breast cancer before it starts. In 2001, to recognize her impressive contributions to breast cancer prevention, the Breast Cancer Fund honored Wanna with the Bella Abzug Advocacy Heroes Award.

With her purple hat and warm smile, and with her husband Charles at her side, she reminded us why we do this work, and we will not forget her. Wanna Wright, we dedicate our work to you with love and gratitude.

FDA warns of skin creams, lotions tainted with mercury (ABC7-TV San Francisco, 5/16/2012)

Mercury in imported skin-lightening creams is just the latest example of toxic chemicals in cosmetics. Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Breast Cancer Fund's Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, spoke with ABC7 News about how shoppers can protect themselves and explained the importance of the Safe Cosmetics Act.

(Read transcript.)

Lessons from our Mothers: Joey Beauregard

In honor of Mother's Day this Sunday, our partners in the Safer States network are publishing a series of blogs, Lessons from our Mothers. Breast Cancer Fund advocate, Climb Against the Odds team member and breast cancer survivor Joey Beauregard shared a lesson from her mom for the series:

If everyone else jumped off of a bridge, would you? My mother drove those words into my head like a mantra. During my adolescence when I tried desperately to fit in, I heard them every day. Although my mother complained that her advice went in one ear and out the other (another phrase she liked to use), I did listen. Her wisdom has become a cornerstone on how I view the world today.

When I was 44, I received a diagnosis of breast cancer. Given that I had no family history of the disease, ate a healthy diet and exercised regularly, I could not understand why this happened to me. Within a few weeks of my diagnosis, I learned of other young women in my neighborhood that had also been told they had breast cancer during the past year.  We had all lived in our neighborhood for at least 16 years at that time. We also lived 1/2 mile from the Tower Chemical Superfund site where DDT and other toxic chemicals had polluted our environment.

I began questioning if our proximity to the waste site had caused our cancer. In search of an answer to my question, I reached out to the Florida Department of Health, the Florida Environmental Protection Agency and the EPA. Although none of the government agencies I contacted would admit that Tower Chemical had caused our cancer, the EPA did commence cleanup of the Tower site.

After learning what I could about toxic chemicals, I came to the realization that pollution in our environment affects more than just my neighbors and myself. It is a crisis that is affecting all of us. No matter where we live, we eat food, drink water and breathe air that is likely to be contaminated with toxic chemicals--and these chemicals are often hidden ingredients in every day products, like toys, cookware, shower curtains, even food containers. Mounting scientific evidence is linking the chemicals in our environment to breast cancer and a host of other diseases.

Our current chemical laws are outdated. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed in 1976.  Of the over 84,000 chemicals on the market today, the EPA has required testing on only a few hundred of them. Only 5 chemicals have been restricted since TSCA went into effect. The chemical industry would have us believe all these chemicals are safe, but the growing scientific evidence suggests otherwise.

The Safe Chemicals Act (S. 847) was introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey in April of 2011.  The legislation addresses many of TSCA’s breakdowns. S. 847 will require a chemical to be proven safe for all people before it can be sold, require chemical companies to supply health risk information about their products to the EPA and consumers, setup a prioritization system for chemical testing and action that gives the highest priority to chemicals that are persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic and will encourage development of safer chemicals.

It is time for our government to enact the Safe Chemicals Act to protect us from the toxic chemicals that lurk in our environment. Chemical companies are attempting to turn the clock back and erase the modern science that is reflected in this bill. I am not willing to jump off a bridge with the chemical companies leading the way. Are you?

Joey Beauregard lives in Clermont, Florida and was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 44 after living near a toxic waste site for 16 years. In 2010 Joey participated in the Breast Cancer Fund's Climb Against the Odds, climbing Mt. Shasta to raise awareness and funds to eliminate toxic chemicals in our environment. She hopes for a day when sound laws are put in place to keep all of us safe from toxic chemicals in our environment.

Worth a read: How chemicals affect us

Nicholas Kristof calls out canned food and cosmetics as culprits and breast cancer as one tragic effect of our current stew of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. His latest column, published yesterday in the New York Times, makes a strong case for more research and better regulation of these chemicals.

Some of our Hereos, including Pete Myers (2008) and Linda Birnbaum on behalf of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (2012) are involved with a new scientific analysis that raises flags about endocrine disruptors.

Big Chem says all this is sensationalist science. So far, it has blocked strict regulation in the United States, even as Europe and Canada have adopted tighter controls on endocrine disruptors.

Yes, there are uncertainties. But the scientists who know endocrine disruptors best overwhelmingly are already taking steps to protect their families. John Peterson Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences and a co-author of the new analysis, said that his family had stopped buying canned food.

“We don’t microwave in plastic,” he added. “We don’t use pesticides in our house. I refuse receipts whenever I can. My default request at the A.T.M., known to my bank, is ‘no receipt.’ I never ask for a receipt from a gas station.” (Read complete article.)

"Endocrine disruptor" is still a foreign term to most Americans, but this is an issue that needs your awareness and action. Read the article and pass it along.

Untested chemicals in beauty products? (ABC World News, 4/30/2012)

Women put an average of 120 chemicals—some linked to cancer and other health problems—on their bodies each day via cosmetics, shared Diane Sawyer on last night's ABC World News.

The Consumer Watchdog piece features our Director of Program and Policy, Janet Nudelman, and highlights the Safe Cosmetics Act, a proposed law supported by the Breast Cancer Fund and our Campaign for Safe Cosmetics that would protect our health.