- Conference
- 2004 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 15 October 2003
- Decision
- Carried
Women should rightly be proud of their campaigning to draw public attention to the impact of breast cancer – one in every nine women in the United Kingdom continues to develop this disease at some point in her lifetime.
During October each year, both cancer charities and women’s organisations make special efforts to publicise the traumas of breast cancer and raise funds to support further research. However, most of that effort is focussed on developing treatment for those who have breast cancer and almost none is focussed on preventing breast cancer in the first place.
Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee to campaign to change the name of Breast Cancer Awareness Month to Breast Cancer Prevention Month.
Conference asks the Committee to seek to work with the Women’s Environmental Network and UNISON’s Labour Link on this campaign to achieve a government commitment to:
1)set up a working group on primary prevention of breast cancer;
2)assign a proportion of annual health spending to a comprehensive programme for primary breast cancer prevention;
3)follow the lead of progressive EU policies on the control and restriction of all endocrine disrupting substances (which may be linked to breast cancer incidence;
4)implement the precautionary principle in connection with substances suspected of impacting adversely on the health of the population;
5)publicise this work widely during October each year.