If you haven’t been blasted with enough pink-colored clothing, appliances or products — or packaging bearing pink ribbons — to know that it’s National Breast Cancer Awareness month, then you must be living in a cave. Or color blind. Or both.

Everywhere, it seems, companies are jumping on the bandwagon to support the NBCA cause. Those who buying into the “shop for a cause” notion might be surprised to discover they’re supporting companies who knowingly use chemicals and additives that are known carcinogens.

Those pretty Pink Ribbon lipsticks sold by Estee Lauder, which promises to donate $500,000 of the proceeds to the NCBA effort? Estee Lauder refuses to cease its use of parabens, a chemical associated with increased rates of breast cancer.

How about Yoplait Yogurt’s pink foil lid “Save Lids to Save Lives” campaign where they promise to donate ten cents for each pink lid mailed to the company. A woman would have to eat three containers of yogurt every day for three months to net $36 for breast cancer research. Meanwhile she’d be ingesting plenty of recombinant bovine growth hormone, a substance also linked to increased cancer risks.

Before you buy into the hype, the folks at Think Before You Pink want to remind you not to be misled by the promise of a pretty pink ribbon.

Want to really help? Save your money (and your gasoline) and donate to the Susan G. Komen foundation where your funds will actually do some good without cluttering up your home with that ghastly pink stuff.

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