Seriously? The Susan G. Komen Foundation releases a perfume as part of their ever growing line of pink products that support the search for a cure to breast cancer and they don’t bother to make sure the formula doesn’t contain hormone altering carcinogens?
In April, 2001, the Susan G. Komen Foundation released Promise Me, a perfume that comes in a pretty pale pink bottle adorned with the foundations pink ribbon symbol. Sales raise money for breast cancer research. All well and good, except for the part where the perfume’s ingredients apparently include several questionable ingredients, including galaxolide, a synthetic musk that is a known hormone disruptor which accumulates in the body and has been found in the fat, blood and breast milk of women who wore perfumes that contained it. Some studies have shown that it may also be a contributing factor in the development of breast cancer.
Sometimes irony makes my head hurt.
The advocacy group that had Promise Me tested, Breast Cancer Action, sent a letter to the Komen Foundation before releasing their findings publicly, asking them to pull the perfume from stores. The foundation responded, according to AOL’s DailyFinance, by saying that, ”our Medical and Scientific Affairs team has thoroughly reviewed and evaluated current research about the perfume ingredients…and concluded that these ingredients do not elevate breast cancer risk in humans.” But, despite the claim that the perfume was harmless, the foundation also agreed to “reformulate the perfume to remove any doubt about the ingredients.”
A reformulated version of the perfume will be available in 2012. Will it be any better than the original? Should health focused groups like the Komen Foundation be so dependent on relationships with big companies that produce potentially harmful chemicals? BCA doesn’t think so, but what do you think? Do these partnerships do more harm than good?
Thanks for covering the important topic of “pinkwashing,” a company or organization that claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces, manufactures and/or sells products that are linked to the disease.
People can ask Komen to recall the perfume and stop pinkwashing by going here: http://bcaction.org/take-action/raise-a-stink/
Thank you for being a voice of truth. Did you know the pink ribbon actually started as the peach ribbon? The intentions of the peach ribbon were everything the pink ribbon is not. I highly recommend reading ” Not just a pretty face, the ugly side of the beauty industry. It changed my life and choices.
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