Abby Lippman

(These are the notes that Abby used for her talk following our 5th annual 'Prevention Is the Cure' march. She continues to enlighten and inspire us.)

BCAM stands for prevention. For BCAM, "prevention is the cure"... the only cure that matters.

Prevention means addressing root causes, not merely pinching off buds as is done by early detection with mammograms and by blood tests to detect early cancers. No matter what the ads say, these are detection processes, not preventive measures.

As with gardening, one can lop off what is seen, but without getting out the roots, weeds grow back — think of dandelions (with apologies to those who braid them into floral arrangements or brew them into homemade wines and teas). The roots are still there to bring back what we temporarily take away from our lawns. But only if the root is itself removed, is there a reasonable chance the dandelion won't regrow.

Breast cancer has a network of root causes, and addressing these should be our focus. We symbolically pulled out — threw out — some roots today with our "toxic dump" of cosmetics and personal care products. But while this might start to weed our own gardens, we need more than individual actions. We need to do more if we are to avoid the ecological disasters that will come in the form of increasing breast cancer rates — as well as increasing respiratory disease, infertility, and immunological problems. This will involve collective and political action.

What's in this network of roots?

• toxins in our environment (at home, at work, outdoors or indoors)
• chemicals in our cosmetics
• poorly-maintained streets that keep us from walking or otherwise being active outdoors
• inadequate social programs that prevent too many women from being able to get access to or purchase healthy and safe food products
• our consumer behaviours that render, in particular, poor immigrant women at risk when they clean our homes or do our nails — if we haven't first mobilized with them for safe working conditions and ensured that they have safe products to use when working in our homes.

BCAMers need to be "rooters for prevention" rather than runners racing, or walkers walking, for "the cure." We need BCAMers to lead in BCAS: Banning Cancer At Source. We need to keep in mind this acronym, BCAS, to remind us and others of the need to Ban Cancer At Source. And, we need to keep in mind that proximity to the source varies along with other privileges women do or do not have depending on where they live, work, shop and play: the more marginalized, the closer to toxic sources a woman is likely to live.

Sadly, the roots of cancer in our environments and working conditions are too often ignored. Worse, they are too often nourished by the increasing commercialization of breast cancer. For example, we are encouraged to wear pink ribbons, to buy pink-ribboned products, and (a recent favourite) to don pink bustiers for breast cancer to raise funds for breast cancer research. But many of these products themselves may be contributing to make the roots of breast cancer flourish.

We don't need to buy bottled "water for hope" in pink-decorated plastic bottles that might actually contribute environmental contaminants when they are thrown empty into landfills. Instead of heeding messages telling us what we can "buy for the cure," we need to have "no-buy" days when we can deliver the economic message that we won't be sold a bill of goods about cures, or about how our purchases are for the cause ... . We need to dump what is harmful. And if anyone has trouble figuring out which products to dump, a simple rule of thumb might be, "If you can't say/pronounce some ingredient, don't wear/apply/touch it."

We don't need to buy or wear any more decorative items alleged to fund research for cures, but we do need determination and commitment to work to make prevention happen.

Finally, we don't need to be told to be vigilant about looking for lumps in our breasts so much as we need others to be vigilant: governments to be vigilant in their enforcement of environmental and health regulations, and industries and companies to be vigilant in their observation of these regulations. (If cosmetic companies are smart enough to create products with potentially toxic substances in them, they certainly should be smart enough to figure out how to remove them.)

We must no longer be victims of the toxic substance abuses of others who pollute our air, earth, water, and bodies. We must rally together so that when we say "no" to these harms, our "no" means "no more." No more industry forcing its toxic products on us to make us better/younger/prettier/smarter — whatever. No more "caveat emptor" and lots more of the precautionary principle.

In closing, let me suggest that there are at least two practical actions for us today, this 5th annual BCAM march for prevention.

• Do all we can to stop the commercialization of breast cancer. This disease is not a business opportunity or a way for companies to look good by decking us with pink ribbons. Let's make the refusal to buy a default option unless something has been proven safe.
• Write to the cosmetic and personal care product manufacturers that have not yet signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and insist that they join this initiative. As well, boycott their products until their safety is guaranteed.