MASSACHUSETTS BREAST CANCER COALITION
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FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends in Prevention,
With our October Turn Pinkwashing Into Prevention campaign, we successfully delivered the message of breast cancer prevention to awareness events during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Along the way, we made many new friends in prevention. We are very grateful for our supporters at Fitness Together Ashland & Southborough who created a running team for the Ashland Half-Marathon and 5K to raise money for our work. Now, Broadway BreakThru (BBT), which offers youth intensive performing arts classes with industry professionals, will donate $50 to MBCC for every person who registers before November 15th for their 2014 Marblehead BBT Summer Intensive. Thank you BBT! With dedication, any event or occasion can benefit breast cancer prevention. If you are participating in an event, whether it is an athletic event, school event, or workshop, contact us to discuss making it into an event for prevention. We'll promote your event on our blog, Facebook, and Twitter, and we will also send you downloadable MBCC flyers to share with participants.
I look forward to your feedback on the next segment in our MBCC Research Updates video series below. This introduction to emerging contaminants in our water will provide a foundation for Dr. Laurel Schaider's next segment, a summary of Silent Spring Institute's research on water contamination in Massachusetts. We hope that you will subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of our videos. These videos are also made available at www.mbcc.org. In the days to come, please look for our holiday appeal letter with the opportunity to make a donation in honor or memory of a loved one and download a personalized holiday card. This appeal is a beautiful and touching letter written by MBCC Board Member Gerry Swift, who shares his experience losing his wife to breast cancer. We thank Gerry for sharing his relationship with this terrible disease. Stories like his motivate us to continue our work to prevent breast cancer for future generations.
Best wishes, 
Cheryl Osimo
Executive Director
Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition
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RESEARCH UPDATES VIDEO SERIES
We are pleased to release the latest video in this series featuring Silent Spring Institute Research Scientist Laurel Schaider, PhD. In this segment, Dr. Schaider introduces the issue of emerging contaminants, including endocrine disrupting compounds and other chemicals of concern in groundwater and drinking water. Watching will help you become an advocate for prevention and take steps to reduce your exposure to chemicals of concern in your drinking water.
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What are Emerging Contaminants? Endocrine Disruptors & Chemicals of Concern in Drinking Water
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MBCC IN THE MEDIA
Throughout the month of October, the Research Updates video series received an interesting mention in over 110 local media outlets across the state. The following two sentences were tacked onto the end of a long article about breast cancer treatment:
The Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition recently announced a new video series, MBCC Research Updates, designed to present the facts about environmental health and breast cancer prevention. Each short video features an interview with a researcher, medical professional, university professor, breast cancer activist, or other prominent figure in the field.
While we greatly appreciate the exposure, the articles
failed to emphasize the prevention of environmental causes of breast cancer and did not inform readers where to view the video series. In response, we submitted a follow-up article to several of these news outlets which provided this information. We are currently waiting to hear back from the editors of several print and online newspapers regarding our submission.
Click here to read our submission
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NSTAR UPDATE
From Sue Phelan of GreenCAPE
You may recall from previous MBCC newsletters that on August 2nd NSTAR announced its intention to spray an untested mixture of herbicides on over 100 miles of vegetation beneath transmission lines (called rights-of- way or ROWs) across Cape Cod. These interface with private homes, public and private water supply wells, etc. The next day GreenCAPE invited Commissioner Greg Watson of Falmouth, NSTAR's regulator at Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), to meet with a small group of local physicians, business owners, health and environmental advocates (including MBCC) to discuss NSTAR's Yearly Operational Plan and request the Commissioner's urgent attention to this threat to the Cape's only drinking water supply. Cape Cod also has one of the highest breast cancer rates nationwide. We would request Comm. Watson's reconsideration of herbicides in areas designated as sole-source aquifers and encourage methods providing the greatest protection for drinking water.
On September 17th Comm.Watson agreed to meet on us on October 7th in a private Falmouth venue. A few weeks later and only one day ahead of our meeting, Watson sent e-mails (but not to us) announcing a "listening session" open to the public at the same venue, date, and time as our meeting, effectively hijacking our in-depth discussion and probing questions about NSTAR's Plan! Watson now insisted that he couldn't meet citizens to answer questions about NSTAR's plan in this or any other forum despite agreeing several weeks prior. When politely asked when he or others might be able to answer these questions ahead of the spraying, Watson responded that "this conversation is going nowhere" and he would see me "on the trail." End of conversation.
Watson kept stressing he didn't have to answer questions about the NSTAR plan. He only listens but doesn't have to respond. However, it is his responsibility to approve the NSTAR plan, which he almost certainly will on November 5th. Spraying can then commence. MDAR regulates the use of pesticides in MA and is not unlike D.C. with its revolving doors (an earlier MDAR employee graduated to Monsanto).
Follow the campaign at www.GreenCAPE.org and on Facebook!
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COMMUNITY CELEBRATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The 11th Annual Rachel Carson Harvest Dinner was held on Saturday, November 2nd. This year's Rachel Carson dinner honored David Dow, an environmentalist and social justice advocate who works with the Sierra Club on Cape Cod.
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Left to right: Sue Phelan, Executive Director of GreenCAPE; David Dow of the Sierra Club; Cheryl Osimo, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition and Co-founder of Silent Spring Institute
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Click here for more information
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Reduce Your Exposure
Minimize exposure to water contaminants...
1. Bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water. Use a solid carbon block water filter in your kitchen for drinking and cooking.
2. Take shorter showers to minimize inhalation and skin absorption of contaminants in water.
3. Avoid flushing unused medications or toxic chemicals such as cleaning products down the drain. This will reduce the presence of emerging contaminants in groundwater.
Be proud of small changes to reduce your exposure. Start with small steps and increase from there. For more tips to reduce your exposure, click here.
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Environmental Health News
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Upcoming Events
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About MBCC
The Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition is dedicated to preventing environmental causes of breast cancer through community education, research advocacy, and changes to public policy. Thank you for supporting our efforts toward breast cancer prevention. Learn more.
617-376-6222
333 Weymouth Street#13
Rockland, MA
02370
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