The arrival of October signals pink. I'm not talking about a triangular coded symbol for the LGBT community but rather the pink ribbons that brand Breast Cancer Awareness Month on everything from vacuum cleaners to cans of tea. The sea of pink is intended to be a gentle (dare I say feminine) reminder of a stark set of facts: One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Nearly a quarter million women (and, yes a few thousand men) will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Do the simple math to estimate the number of lesbians who will suffer this disease and do the math again times two to imagine how many partnered/ married lesbian families will be affected. For many it will be life threatening. For most it will mean grueling treatment. For all it will be devastating. Forty thousand-plus women will die from a disease that has become so common that it is normalized as a chronic illness. Pink doesn't begin to communicate the gravity of it all. And "Awareness" just isn't enough.
In October, we are asked by the cancer industry to celebrate the advances in treatment that have reduced mortality – and we do. We are asked to mourn the budget cuts, job, and income losses that reduce access to health care – such as it is – and we do. And we are asked to dutifully sign up for mammograms – as if that will somehow protect us from the disease – reluctantly, we do. We mostly hear that what matters is early detection, improving treatment, and finding a cure. All very important to be sure. What we are not hearing enough about is preventing breast cancer in the first place.
For me, as president of the Breast Cancer Fund and someone who has supported too many friends through the devastation of breast cancer, what matters most is working toward a day when we won't need Breast Cancer Awareness Month; when my job will be obsolete – because we have uncovered and eliminated the environmental causes of the disease and stopped it before it could start. There is clear scientific evidence (www.breastcancerfund.org/evidence) linking environmental exposures and breast cancer. Toxic chemicals and radiation in our everyday environment contribute to the complex web of breast cancer causation. Our path forward is also clear: We must work to reduce our exposures by taking individual and collective action, demanding corporate accountability and crafting good public policy that protects us from these toxic exposures in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the medical treatment we receive and the products we use every day.
While we don't know for sure if lesbians are truly at greater absolute risk for breast cancer, we do know that being a woman is the primary risk factor and that is surely compounded by the health hazard called homophobia. We don't need statistical certainty to know that our lovers, spouses, friends, co-workers, and family members are suffering. And when we know that no more than one in 10 women with breast cancer has a genetic history of the disease, we have a moral imperative to prevent it, sparing hundreds of thousands the agony of ever having to receive that life-changing diagnosis.
The LGBT community is not spared and is quite probably disproportionately affected. Our community has proven time and again our capacity to drive public health and social justice issues to the front page of every newspaper in the country; to mobilize for good corporate citizens and against companies that are harming us; to show up in force in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
In addition to our important work for equal rights and justice, health care and jobs, we can do a better job in supporting each other to make wiser choices that make a difference for our personal health – by encouraging each other to purchase safer personal care products, household goods, and food. The weather in San Francisco is great – get outside and take that long, righteous walk from the Castro to the Supreme Court building for the health of it! Pick up a stainless steel water bottle and reduce your use of plastic. Be sure it is Bisphenol A (BPA) free, and that goes for baby bottles too. BPA is a chemical linked to breast cancer and other adverse health affects. And by all means, be sure your lipstick doesn't contain lead! (http://www.safecosmetics.org). Reduce your alcohol consumption and avoid pesticides by shopping local and organic when you can.
For you policy wonks, there are several important pieces of legislation winding their way through the U.S. Congress that will build on last year's ban of toxic chemicals in children's toys, including a federal ban on BPA, authority for the Food and Drug Administration to actually regulate personal care products, a major piece of legislation that would completely overhaul how chemicals are regulated in this country, and a national program to track the link between disease and exposure to pollution in our environment. Key environmental health champions include our own House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and Congresswoman Jackie Speier.
When something matters to us, we make sure everyone knows about it. Breast cancer matters. Let's take back October and take action that sends a clear message that we are going to turn the tide on this disease of epidemic proportions that is hurting our community.
Jeanne Rizzo, R.N., is president and CEO of the Breast Cancer Fund. She was also a plaintiff with her wife Pali Cooper in the California marriage case overturned by Proposition 8.