Breast Cancer Prevention Legislation

The European Union, concerned about the rising cost of their public health care insurance is trying to stop breast cancer before it starts, They have passed Breast Cancer Prevention Laws!

• Safe Cosmetics Law
• Safer Alternatives or Safe Chemicals Law
• Ban on the sale of rBGH milk and dairy products.

Breast Cancer Prevention Planks for Republican and Democratic 2008 Party Platforms: Working with the national Republican and Democratic Party Platform Committees, NBCPP is urging both parties to include Breast Cancer Prevention Laws in the Health Planks of their respective 2008 Convention Platforms.

Background Information

A number of national and state Breast Cancer Prevention Organizations have been working for many years to develop and pass these three pieces of consumer protection legislation. Learn More Now!

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is the best source of information on understanding what safe cosmetics means and which U.S. companies have now signed the Voluntary Compact for Safe Cosmetics. You can also read the full text of the European Union’s 2005 Safe Cosmetics Law at the Campaign’s website.

Not Just A Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, by Tracy Malken: New Society, 2007, illustrates how major U.S. cosmetic companies are resisting Safe Cosmetics Legislation.

The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow is the best source of information on understanding what safe chemicals or safer alternatives means. This coalition of more than 200 community, health, consumer, religious and labor groups within Massachusetts has proposed a Safer Alternatives Act, similar to the European Union’s 2006 Safe Chemicals Law known as REACH. Califonia, under their 1986 law, Prop 65, already requires manufacturers to report their use of about 775 chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects. For a brief review of background information on how the U.S. government needs to reform chemicals policy, see Cloudy Skies, Chance of Sun.

The Cancer Prevention Coalition is the best source of information on understanding the links between breast cancer and milk containing rBGH. In May of last year, the Coalition, The Organic Consumers Association, Family Farm Defenders and the Institute for Responsive Technology sent a citizens petition (PDF download) to Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services to withdraw current federal approval for Posilac or Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH,) manufactured by Monsanto, used to increase milk production in dairy cows. The Agency has yet to publicly respond to the petition.

Its about time we had Breast Cancer Prevention Laws in the U.S. Please donate today to NBCPP’s National Breast Cancer Prevention Campaign.