In this year’s Think Before You Pink® campaign, we are saying “We Can’t Be Pink’d: Say NO to Pink Policies!” Since 2002, Breast Cancer Action has led Think Before You Pink® campaigns each October in response to “Breast Cancer Awareness Month." Now, we’re taking on the lack of leadership, from the President down to agency leaders, in addressing the breast cancer epidemic.
This first week, launching Monday, October 5th, we’re focusing on the leadership of the EPA and how the agency favors industry while ignoring public health science, at the direction of this anti-science, profit-before-people administration. We have two actions you can take right now to stop this blatant disregard for public health that increases women’s exposures to known and suspected carcinogens. Tell the EPA We Can’t Be Pink’d with the following actions:
- Email Andrew Wheeler, EPA Administrator, and demand that the EPA stop the environmental rollbacks now and protect our health!
- Tweet this political cartoon directly to the EPA and Andrew Wheeler, to show them exactly what you think their pink policies are doing to the EPA. Toggle between the email and Twitter icons in the top right of the action alert page to complete both actions - don't forget to do both!
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The book, EPA Under Siege: Trump’s Assault in History and Testimony, says it best: “The Trump administration currently poses the greatest threat to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its entire 47-year history.”
In the United States, 70 to 80 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no known risk factors. Involuntary exposure to toxic chemicals that are often unregulated in our environment can increase our risk of breast cancer.
The EPA is charged with protecting human health and the environment, yet this administration is actively rolling back critical rules and regulations that protect us from toxic chemicals that can increase risk for breast cancer and other health protections.
Tell the EPA to protect public health and stop environmental regulation rollbacks!
In 2017 an Executive Order was issued that “directs agencies to repeal at least two existing regulations for each new regulation issued in FY 2017 and thereafter.” The EPA wasted no time. In under four years more than 70 critical rules and regulations that protect our air, water, and vulnerable communities from carcinogenic chemicals have been dismantled. This year alone the EPA has rolled back critical auto pollution rules, eliminated regulation to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, and relaxed wastewater disposal standards for coal fired power plants.
These, and other rollbacks, will expose more people to more dangerous chemicals. Yet, the leaders of EPA show no signs of stopping: the website currently lists 33 more rules and regulations they are working to weaken or eliminate. See our full EPA week Think Before You Pink® campaign page to learn more about these rollbacks.
This blatant disregard for human health increases women’s exposure to known and suspected breast carcinogens and minimizes the severity of root causes of the disease. Their systematic approach to dismantling the country’s health and safety rules and regulations is putting everyone’s health at risk!
These rollbacks are pink policies, because while the EPA claims to protect public health, their actions fail to protect people living with breast cancer and increase breast cancer risk for all people - especially for women, people of color, and low-income people. If the administration really cared about people living with and at risk of breast cancer, they would enforce regulations that protect us from harmful exposures, instead of the rollbacks we are currently seeing from the EPA.
Join us in saying NO to pink policies. Tell the EPA to stop the rollbacks and protect our health!
In Solidarity,
Jayla Burton
Program Officer
P.S. Stay tuned for next week’s action. We’ll be calling out the Food and Drug Administration for not doing enough to protect patients and consumers! Action launches Monday, October 12.
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