Donations From Fracking Companies Tie Susan G. Komen To Public Health Hazards

In their quest for donations, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has agreed to a partnership with a major mining and fracking company. Along with a $100,000 donation to Komen, the company is distributing pink drill bits to their fracking sites.

Fracking is a toxic practice. According the Concerned Health Professionals of New York, at least 25% of the more than 700 chemicals used in fracking are linked to cancer. As part of the fracking process, these chemicals are pumped into the earth. If these chemicals reach natural water reservoirs, they can threaten public health.

Fracking involves injecting saltwater and various chemicals into the Earth to release oil.

As Mother Jones, reports “the fracking process injects possible and known carcinogens, including benzene, formaldehyde, and sulfuric acid, into the ground and surrounding environment.”

A 2011 senate investigation of 14 leading fracking companies found that 10.2 million gallons of fracturing products containing at least one carcinogen were pumped into the ground between 2005 and 2009.

Fracking compounds can pollute local drinking water supplies.

According to Scientific American, other investigations into fracking sites have shown higher than safe levels of methanol and diesel compounds around sampling wells, and salt and fracking fluid found deeper in the aquifer.

“The shallow hydraulic fracturing is a potential problem because you don’t need a problem with well integrity to have chemicals migrate into drinking water,” said former EPA scientist Dominic DiGiulio.

Fracking can have widespread environmental impact if materials are not properly contained.

Komen’s own website, “Environmental Chemicals and Breast Cancer Risk,” warns its readers about “Common chemicals that may be associated with breast cancer,” listing several chemicals released when fracking. In effect, pink drill bits are doing more to cause cancer than cure it.

Companies which flagrantly introduce carcinogens into our environment cannot expect that painting drill bits pink and giving a small donation can erase the damage they are doing to public health.

$Help us tell Susan Komen for a Cure that donations from fracking should be returned.$ Help us tell Susan G. Komen for the Cure that donations from fracking should be returned.

Accepting donations from companies that destroy our environment and public health cannot be the best way to go about defeating breast cancer. As the world’s largest breast cancer organization, Susan G. Komen for the Cure should set a standard for donation ethics, and if a donor represents a company or cause that spreads carcinogens in our communities, that donation should be refused.

Click below and help us ask Susan G. Komen for the Cure to change its donor ethics and end partnerships with cancer-causing companies like Baker Hughes!