Friday, October 29, 2010

"Is the Pink Ribbon a Bad Idea? Maybe"

There is a story on the Rodale News website that complements the post here on Wednesday, which discussed the connection between environmental factors and breast cancer.

Rodale interviewed sociologist Gayle Sulik, who, in her new book, "examines how all those pink ribbon marketing campaigns associated with breast cancer may be doing more harm than good."

Sulik makes many interesting points that, I think, need addressing. Click here to read the entire interview, but here's one of Sulik's beliefs:

"Right now, the biggest area that needs to be addressed is the environmental links to breast cancer. There's already a lot of focus on behaviors that influence risk factors—eat right, exercise, limit alcohol intake—but only 30 percent of all breast cancer cases are found in people who have these known risk factors. So, for 70 percent of the cases, we don't know what causes it. That creates this false impression that by doing certain things, you'll prevent breast cancer. But in 70 percent of cases, there's a lot of evidence that the environment is having a lot of influence."

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