Consumers Have Right to Know what chemicals they are using daily

healthycom

The Public has the right to know what chemicals they are putting in and on their bodies and using in their homes every day. Your website seems to fail in giving this information to the public. You do not seem linked to any environmental groups like  Environmental Working  Group, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, or Prevent Cancer.com. These all help consumers understand the magnitude of this health issue with daily used personal care and beauty cosmetics. Are you supported by this very industry too, like American Cancer society and Susan B. Komen. Neither of these groups will tell the public this information either, because they are supported by the very industry manufacturing the harmful chemicals and known carcinogens. publicsright2know.org

healthycom

I have tried to do a search on your website about chemicals in products, and nothing comes up. That is why I feel you are not letting consumers know this information. Uneducated is a better word for not knowing. Same with American Cancer Society and Susan B. Komen, nothing on chemicals in everyday products to avoid. I wish you would have links to campaign for safe cosmetics and environmental working group, and would have safe and healthy products to recommend for consumers. I am more than happy to tell you about my favorite company, but you do not want me to give out this information (you call it advertising). I call it sharing healthy information and healthy choices for consumers.

healthycom

Yes this is a bc support group. My Mother died of bc in 1982, she was just 56. I am now 62 and a cancer survivor myself. I do not want happening to my Mom or me happening to others. That is the reason for the post about chemicals in your daily used persoanl care, beauty cosmetics and household products. There is a definite connection between what you are putting in and on your body and cancer. I am the messenger with this vital  health information. I know its a shock for some of you to hear about the dangers of chemicals in daily used products, but I have been researching this for over 25 years and found out about all the nasty chemicals in products that are causing so much of these cancers. I will share the information with anyone open to hear it.

Wake up, due your research and learn how you can support our breast cancer board with information such as this. IF you are in denial that this is happening, I am sorry for you.

Beesie

"There is a definite connection between what you are putting in and on your body and cancer. I am the messenger with this vital health information. I know its a shock for some of you to hear about the dangers of chemicals in daily used products, but I have been researching this for over 25 years and found out about all the nasty chemicals in products that are causing so much of these cancers."

    

News flash:  We're not idiots!  Of course there are zillions of chemicals in products we use everyday, and of course some of them may be carcinogens.  Welcome to the real world.  It's a nasty place. Stand up anyone who didn't know this before.  Hmmm.... I don't see anyone standing.

Okay then,  let me be the messenger of this vital information: There are dozens (more likely, hundreds) of risk factors for breast cancer. Although it's true that most breast cancer is not directly caused by an inherited gene mutation, most of the more significant risk factors are related to our personal genetics or personal history.  The number one risk factor for breast cancer is being a woman.  The number two risk factor for breast cancer, as a woman, is getting older. Let's all go out now and change those two.  Guess we can't.  High breast density, when and if you had children, high bone density, your levels of blood estrogen, the age at which you got your first period, the age at which you entered menopause - those are all factors that increase one's risk for breast cancer.  Does exposure to chemical carcinogens increase risk as well?  Yes, of course.  Should we all try to minimize our exposure to chemical carcinogens?  Yes, that probably makes a lot of sense.  Will this eliminate all breast cancer?  Not a chance; it may stop some occurrences (and yes, this would be a good thing) but probably not most.  

The fact is that the recorded history of breast cancer goes back at least 3500 years.  This was just a few years - oh, a few thousand years - before chemical carcinogens entered our lives.  Of course, it's certainly true that breast cancer was not as prevalent then as it is today, so maybe that's the effect of chemical carcinogens.  Possibly, but here's another explanation.  As recently as 100 years ago (never mind 3500 years ago), the average life expectancy for women was 47.  Since most women get BC after the age of 50 and since risk increases further in your 60s and 70s, perhaps that's the reason why we see more breast cancer today. 

I am not suggesting that chemical carcinogens are harmless or should be ignored.  Are some of the women here interested in learning more about chemical carcinogens?  Certainly.  But there's no need to start sounding the alarms.  There's no need for scare tactics.  And there's certainly no need for insults.  The women here are a lot smarter than you seem to think.  The women here are a lot more educated about breast cancer than you seem to think.   We don't need a wake up call. 

http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/BreastCancerRiskFactorsTable.html

http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/029cancer.html

yellowrose

Thank you Beesie.  I've been wanting to respond but couldn't find a tactful way to do so. 

Healthcom, as a cancer survivor, you should be very aware that the many folks diagnosed with cancer research and learn and practically become walking medical encyclopedias.  Your post does come across as thinking that we are foolish, ignorant and unable to make healthy choices. 

That's a mistake and the likelyhood of you getting any positve message out is non-existant.  The boards welcome information in the fight against this disease but you are alienating the very people you say you want to help with your mode of posting.  Being passionate in the fight against cancer should never involve treating others in such an arrogantly superior manner.  Keep fighting for your beliefs but realize that fellow survivors aren't the enemy.

healthycom

Thank you for adding all the other information about how we are getting cancer. I am not trying to use "scare tactics", just giving the public the facts and truth.

. I am sharing these facts, and the public can  due their own research and decide, or irgnore and deny the facts. Using safe personal care, beauty cosmtics and household cleaning products is just one step in the direction of helping prevent cancer. It is by no means the end all. I see you are  from Komen or quoting from them, and wonder why Komen and ACS will not tell consumers about avoiding chemicals? I do believe the public needs further education in this area, not calling people idiots, just uneducated. My Mom died of cancer at age 56, but my chances of getting bc, because of my lifestyle are only 2%. I was in the Gilda Radner Ovarian cancer study and this is what they told me my chances are. Please consider the message and share the information with everyone you care about and love. Hace you read the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics or Environmental Working Group or Preventcancer.com websites? They tell the truth and are not giving "scare tactics":, just the facts. Its up to consumers to choose healthy products publicsright2know.org

Beesie

I'm not from Komen.  I simply included a link to the Komen site for information about breast cancer risks. I could have included links to hundreds of other websites because like many of the women here, I have educated myself about breast cancer.  We are not uneducated, although you believe (and have the gall to tell us) that we are. 

Someone who does their own research and decides to not change the cosmetics and/or household cleaning products that they use is not ignoring or denying the facts.  They may simply be interpreting the facts differently than you, or making a different assessment of their personal risk level from these products.  With so much varying information out there, no one person has a stranglehold on the truth and one's person's interpretation is no more correct than another person's interpretation.  It seems to me that you must be pretty uneducated and/or narrow-minded if you don't understand that, if you believe that anyone who doesn't agree with you or doesn't reach the same conclusions as you is wrong.  Just because some women here may not share your concerns, or share them to the same extent that you do, does not mean that we are stupid, uneducated, denying the facts, have our heads in the sand, or anything else.  As yellowrose said so well, "Being passionate in the fight against cancer should never involve treating others in such an arrogantly superior manner."

barbe1958

There's also the expression of "closing the barn door after the horses have fled". There are also many women on this site who have lived "green" and healthy all their lives and are now dealing with breast cancer. Go figure.

As an after-thought, I'm pretty sure if we're using this board we can read. We can also read the labels on the products we use.

Pick your battles wisely.