Pinkwashing a form of injustice

Firms using pink to indicate support for breast cancer research while still using chemicals shown to cause cancer commit social injustice, U.S. researchers say.Amy Lubitow of Portland State University in Oregon and Mia Davis of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in Boston say aligning with the cause of breast cancer research by using the color pink or pink ribbons while using cancer-causing chemicals is a form of social injustice against women called pinkwashing."Pinkwashing simultaneously increases profits and potentially contributes to increasing cancer rates and obscures an environmental health discourse that recognizes the environmental causes of breast cancer," Lubitow and Davis say in a statement.In their article, titled "Pastel Injustice: The Corporate Use of Pinkwashing for Profit," published in Environmental Justice, the researchers draw attention to the practice of appealing to consumers' social and sometimes environmental consciousness by institutions who contribute to environmental health disparities."The blind financial support of these entities, by affected consumers, is a form of environmental injustice that is clearly elucidated by the authors," Sylvia Hood Washington, editor in chief of Environmental Justice and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, says.