Women's Environmental Network Educating, empowering and informing women and men who care about the environment. Campaigning on environmental and health issues from a female perspective.
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Current campaigns
Stopping Breast Cancer Before it Starts Call for precaution and prevention. Women don't want to get breast cancer in the first place.


  • Call for a precautionary approach to potential risk factors - if something is suspected of being harmful but its effects are not fully understood, it should be avoided or removed from use until proven harmless.

  • Put breast cancer on the map - draw a map of your local environment for incidence of breast cancer and sources of local pollution.


Did
You
Know
?

  • Breast Cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK and in women at 41,000 cases in 1999. (Cancer Research UK). 50-70% of cases have no known cause.

  • There is a growing body of evidence linking breast cancer to the cocktail of chemicals in the air, water, land and our food to which we are involuntarily exposed every day. These chemicals are commonly used in a range of pesticides, paints, plastics, and personal products in the home and the workplace.

  • A women's lifetimes risk of getting the disease has risen from 1 in 12 to 1 in 9 (Cancer Research UK) over the last 5 years.
  • Breast Cancer is a symbolic illness - symbolising the harm being done to present and future generations and the environment by such widespread exposure to potentially harmful chemicals and environmental pollution.
  • Lifestyle accounts for only about 30% of all known cases. 8-10% of cases are attributed to family history, therefore over 50% of cases have no known cause. (Putting Breast Cancer on the Map).
 
Ending the Cosmetics cover up UK women spend over £3.3 billion a year on cosmetics and toiletries. Together use your consumer power to:
  • Find out what is in the cosmetics and toiletries you use.

    •
  • Lobby industry and government for the use of safer chemicals.

    •
  • Call for potentially hazardous ingredients to be banned.

    •
  • Promote the use of safer and cheaper alternatives to hazardous products.

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  • Assert your right to know what chemicals are used, by calling for all ingredients to be listed on product labels.

    •
  • Discover creative ideas for what to do with cosmetics containing suspect chemicals.


Did
You
Know
?

  • The cosmetics industry uses more than 5,000 different chemicals in cosmetics and toiletries, not all of them safe for our bodies

  • Some of these chemicals are either known to or suspected of causing cancer, disrupting hormones or immune systems or affecting reproductive health.

  • Less than 1500 out of 5000 chemical materials used in fragrances have been safety tested by industry.

  • The law allows manufacturers to keep product ingredients secret.
 
Detecting hidden hazards Seek out the potentially hazardous chemicals in your homes… what lurks beneath the trademark. Only a few hundred of the 30,000 chemicals in everyday use have been adequately tested
 

  • Map your homes and mark the presence of chemicals in products and furniture

  • Use your consumer power to lobby companies for fewer and safer chemicals in products.

  • Encourage the government to adopt a precautionary approach to potentially hazardous chemicals

  • Work together to find out what lurks beneath the trademark…manufacturers know what's in their products but do you?
More from Less Don't throw the world away
 
  • Promote the use of real nappies

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  • Avoid excess packaging - find ways to slim your bin

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  • Get your local council to promote waste prevention alternatives to wasteful products

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  • Support schemes that turn one person's rubbish into another's resources
  • Join our new network - starting soon - of community groups developing practical ideas to prevent waste.
Cultivating the future Join a local food growing group or support local food initiatives.
  • Promote locally grown and organic food.

    •
  • Lobby for cheaper organic food for all.

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  • Learn how the current system favours mass food-production and what to do about it.
 

Make a difference together

Join WEN's network of local groups and get involved in any of our campaigns

 
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PO Box 30626, London E1 1TZ Tel 020 7481 9004 Email localgroups@wen.org.uk