WEN

Breast Cancer, an environmental disease

Think before you pink - One in nine and rising - Toxic Tour of Whitehall - World Conference on Breast Cancer -
Breasts & Bellies demo - Stopping Breast Cancer Before it Starts- Putting Breast Cancer on the Map Review 2003 -
Women Taking Action for a Healthier Planet - Putting Breast Cancer on the Map

WEN has consistently called for more emphasis on primary prevention to stop the epidemic of breast cancer for present and future generations. In just five years a women’s lifetime risk of getting breast cancer went from one in twelve to one in nine. Today it is the most common female cancer, at 41,000 new cases in the UK each year.

In 1995 we handed an 80,000-signature petition called the National Action Plan for Breast Cancer, to the Department of Health. Putting Breast Cancer on the Map, was a two-year lottery-funded project empowering women to participate in positive action to change the minds of government, the medical establishment, and society at large about the way in which breast cancer is viewed, treated and politicised in the UK.

	Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2006 This October WEN and UNISON are calling for everyone to start detoxing their lives by removing some of the potential cancer-causing chemicals from their homes and returning them to where they bought them. More info.

	The Big See campaign launched by WEN and UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector union, in October 2005, charges the UK government & ‘cancer establishment’ with blindfolding women to the truth about breast cancer, by refusing to acknowledge or take action on the links between chemicals and the disease. The campaign is urging women to remove their pink ribbon blindfolds to show their eyes have been opened to those links - and the fact that breast cancer is not therefore inevitable, but preventable. Using the evidence gathered in a ground breaking document Breast Cancer - an Environmental Disease: The Case for Primary Prevention, that WEN helped put together, the campaign is demanding an urgent shake-up of cancer policy. More Whilst the Government remains fixated with screening and treatment, real primary prevention goes ignored – and breast cancer rates continue to soar. The campaign is calling for MPs and MEPs to vote for and support the introduction of strong new European legislation to control chemicals - REACH (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of Chemicals).More Women are challenging the ‘cancer forever’ future envisaged by the Government as a policy which is no longer acceptable. Action can and must be taken now by our elected representatives to reduce our exposure to carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting chemicals. More information on how to lobby here and here. Press releases

	Think Before You Pink 2004 How much do ‘pink ribbon products’ really help prevent breast cancer?

	One in nine & rising - it's time to prevent breast cancer October is known as 'breast cancer awareness month' but WEN says it should be renamed breast cancer prevention month. The number of new cases is rising all the time yet not enough is being done to really prevent the disease. Click here to download our September 2003 leaflet (98k pdf)

	Toxic Tour of UK Government departments in October 2002 to highlight lack of action to prevent the disease. Press release.

	World Conference on Breast Cancer (June 2002) Press release from conference organisers (63k pdf) Victoria Declaration from the conference (23k doc)

	A presentation to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer, with the Ban Lindane Campaign was accompanied by a 'Breasts and Bellies' demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament. Briefing to MPs (145k pdf) (Jan 2002)

Stopping Breast Cancer Before it Starts - Putting Primary Prevention on the National Breast Cancer Agenda was born out of the recommendations put forward in the report of the Putting Breast Cancer on the Map project (see below). This initiative held its first forum in the House of Commons in November (2000). A report of the proceedings is available as Word file or Pdf

Putting Breast Cancer on the Map Review 2003 In 2003 we updated the website to include maps drawn by the participants of the Putting Breast Cancer on the Map campaign (see below). Other groups working on the issue of primary prevention were also highlighted.

Women Taking Action for a Healthier Planet ran from 2001 to 2004 funded by the Community Fund, to build on the work of Putting Breast Cancer on the Map. It helped women set up or develop local groups and share information to facilitate their campaigns at a local and national level.

Putting Breast Cancer on the Map grew from our work on petitioning for a National Action Plan for Breast Cancer. It involved women and their communities drawing maps of their environment highlighting local pollution sources that they thought were linked to incidence rates of breast cancer in their locality.