For immediate release
January 17, 2019
Contact: Kira Jones
Communications Manager
415.243.9301×15
ksjones@bcaction.org

Breast Cancer Activists Deliver Over 45,000 Petition Signatures to Ford Motor Company telling them to “Go Further” and Help Put the Brakes on Breast Cancer

DETROIT, MICHIGAN (January 17, 2019) – Today Breast Cancer Action and activists delivered over 45,000 petition signaturesto Ford Motor Company at their world headquarters in Michigan during the North American International Auto Show. Breast cancer activists are pushing for the giant auto manufacturer to stop their decades of pinkwashing and help put the brakes on the breast cancer epidemic by no longer making vehicles that produce cancer-causing exhaust.

“We see right through Ford Motor Company’s pink smoke screen to the truth,” said Breast Cancer Action’s executive director, Karuna Jaggar. “Ford’s Warriors in Pink program is just a feel-good attempt to distract from the company’s role in driving up the risk of breast cancer.”

The petition delivery was Breast Cancer Action’s most recent effort to push Ford to stop pinkwashing and “Go Further” than their Warriors in Pink program. Activists gathered while the automotive industry was in Detroit to roll out their latest vehicle designs.

Ford runs Warriors in Pink, a program they say is “dedicated to helping those touched by breast cancer.” “But Ford’s making business decisions, like announcing plans last year to go full-throttle on sales in the U.S. of their trucks and SUVs, some of Ford’s highest emission vehicles, that will actually increase our exposure to chemicals that cause breast cancer. This hypocrisy,” said Jaggar, “is called pinkwashing.”

Scientists have known for decades that the chemicals in exhaust, such as carcinogens and hormone disruptors like 1,3-butadiene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and benzene increase breast cancer risk.

A quarter of a million women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually, and more than 40,000 people will die from the disease this year. “None of the hope, inspiration, and determination that Ford promises ‘to fuel’ will change these grim statistics as long as their cars and trucks continue to produce cancer-causing exhaust that exposes everyone to chemicals that increase the risk of breast cancer,” said Jaggar.

In October 2018, Breast Cancer Action launched “Put the Brakes on Breast Cancer,” which targeted Ford as part of their annual Think Before You Pink® campaign, which runs during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They kicked off their campaign, which was endorsed by 20 partner organizations,including CREDO Action,with an open letter to the giant auto manufacturer that ran in the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News. The more than 45,000 petition signatures that activists delivered to Ford’s headquarters were collected by CREDO during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, or as Breast Cancer Action has named it, “Breast Cancer Industry Month.”

Ford’s Warriors in Pink website asks, “What more can we do?” Breast Cancer Action’s “Put the Brakes on Breast Cancer” campaign argues that the best way for Ford to show they really care about people living with and dying from breast cancer is to stop making vehicles that produce cancer-causing exhaust.

“Over a hundred years ago, Ford made its name by bringing the Model-T to the masses. It’s time for the giant auto manufacturer to stop making vehicles that produce cancer-causing exhaust and bring a zero emission fleet to the masses. After all, the best way to fight cancer is to prevent it in the first place,” said Jaggar.

The petition delivery is held in conjunction with a 12 p.m. EST press conference at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit where activists will denounce Ford’s environmental record. That press conference will be held outside the Cobo Center (1 Washington Blvd., Detroit, Michigan). For more information, contact Angela Bradbery, abradbery@citizen.org, (202) 503-6768.

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Breast Cancer Action (www.bcaction.org) is a national education and activist nonprofit organization whose mission is to achieve health justice for all women at risk of and living with breast cancer. BCAction has a strict conflict of interest policy and refuses to accept corporate funding from companies or organizations that profit from or contribute to the breast cancer epidemic.