Our personal power never left…we can choose to avoid #3, #6, and #7 plastics!

Friday night was a powerful event, Protect Our Breasts is now followed on Facebook by twice as many “friends”; and UMass fans left the Mullins Center with all sorts of empowering information from the Breast Cancer Fund. Thank you to everyone involved!

Less than 24 hours later, we lost electric power in Western Mass due to the off-season snow storm and many of us have just seen or are still awaiting restoration. We are all a little off kilter with our usual routine compromised. Today, at a new coffee place, I grabbed a lid to pop on top of my Rainforest Alliance (less pesticides, not organic, but not awful) coffee in a paper cup. I noticed the number 6 inside the recycling mark. Oh dear! As we know from both the Breast Cancer Fund and others, polystyrene is usually identified by the number 6. Styrene can leach from this substance and the chemical is both a mammary carcinogen (Silent Spring Institute) and a potential endocrine disruptor (TEDX). And to think, if I hadn’t been aware of the number 6, I could have been drinking my HOT coffee through it. The good news is the safe route is pretty easy…take off the top and tell your friends not to use #6 lids on coffee. (Actually, you want to avoid plastics #3, #6 and #7!)

We may have lost our electricity for a time, but our personal power never left. We each have the ability to become aware of the chemicals in our everyday products that contribute to breast cancer and choose safer versions for a healthier future for all!