The Breast Cancer-Industrial Complex

On the heels of the news that Republican presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson has vowed to end breast cancer by 2015, Brad takes the opportunity for some always-welcome discussion about the shortcomings of breast-cancer behemoth the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
He links to this amazing piece by Mary Ann Swissler about how corporate-backed cancer foundations like Komen are essentially taking money from (and improving the images of) companies that have profited by dumping chemicals into the environment, chemicals that very likely cause breast cancer. For example, one of Komen’s big business buddies is Occidental, a huge petro-chemical company.
Swissler’s piece, which I really can’t recommend highly enough, also goes into detail about Komen’s close relationship with Republicans. So it comes as no surprise that Nancy Brinker, Komen’s founder, was selected as this year’s Independent Women’s Forum “Woman of Valor.”
Apparently “Women of Valor” are those who cozy up to corporations that are causing the very disease their foundations claim to fight. Sounds pretty brave to me.
Brad also links to this post at the Plank about Thompson’s announcement, in which Mike Crowley writes,

And it’s not as though breast cancer, of all diseases, persists from a lack of publicity and political focus. My guess is we’re already doing about as much as can be done. But please correct me if I’m wrong.

Consider this a correction. His misunderstanding points to another thing that’s so pernicious about the Komen Foundation. The pervasiveness of their corporate pink-washing campaign leads most people to believe that breast cancer is a disease we’re pouring lots and lots of resources into fighting. (“Hey, if every “lite” product I consume has a pink ribbon on it, we MUST be doing all we can!”) While that may be true on the treatment end, it’s certainly not true when it comes to exposing environmental causes of the disease, as Swissler explains in detail.
And these misconceptions persist exactly because people like IWF continue to honor the Komen Foundation for happily partnering with the companies whose pollution causes this disease.