I am angry because The United States has yet to pass breast cancer prevention laws.

Unlike the European Union, which passed a cosmetics safety law in 2005, and a chemical safety law in 2006, the U.S. Government continues to allow known and potentially carcinogenic ingredients to be added to our food supply, our air and water, our cosmetics, our body care products, our dry cleaning process, and our home and garden supplies.

As a result of the European Union’s Safe Cosmetics Act, most of the shampoos, body lotions, hair dyes and lipsticks now in our American bathrooms, are considered unsafe and banned from sale in Europe. Imported non-organic meat and dairy products from the US are also banned. This is because most meat and dairy now sold in US supermarkets, contain added animal growth hormones, which research shows contribute to breast and other type of cancers.

Meanwhile, U.S., breast cancer rates are the highest in the world. In the 1950’s, only 1 in 20 American women could expect a breast diagnosis in her lifetime. Today, in some EU countries, that number is one out of 15, in Great Britain it is 1 out of 9 and in the U.S. it is now 1 out of 7.

The European Union’s government believes it has the responsibility and the ability to protect its citizens from this breast cancer epidemic that has gained momentum in both the US and Europe for the past fifty years. So why hasn’t the US passed similar prevention laws?

“It’s the cancer economy stupid.”... to paraphrase a well-known political truism.

Environmental and nutritional science, along with medical research, is now showing us that 90% of breast cancer is preventable. This is not good news for companies within the American Cancer Industry; such business entities do not promote prevention as they must always find ways to increase surgery numbers, drug sales and radiation procedures to meet their quarterly profit goals.

Neither the US corporate media, nor our politicians have yet to talk about this huge disconnect between the industry’s need for more cancer patients and our growing international body of scientific research that understands how to stop breast cancer before it starts. The result? American women are now living with an unnecessary breast cancer epidemic.

Maybe it’s time to haul in the pink ribbons and raise some red flags.

Susan Wadia-Ells is the director of The Women, Weight and Breast Cancer Project or WWBC. This national organization offers free workshops to women's community, religious and business groups around the country, educating women about personal and public ways we can each prevent breast cancer. The project also offers women support in losing extra body fat, in order to lower one's breast cancer risk. The project's growing group of paid workshop leaders hopes to offer workshops in all fifty states by the end of 2007.

Breast cancer does not recognize nor respect any age differences when it strikes in women, but when women under the age of approximately 50 are diagnosed with breast cancer, studies have found that the cancer is more aggressive and typically less responsive to the traditional treatments than when it occurs in older women.

But researchers think that they may have discovered the reason that this is the case, which is forging new inroads into the treatment of and potentially a cure for some forms of breast cancer. These findings of course need additional research but the findings are significant and may lead to more targeted therapies that can treat affected patients more effectively.

The research and studies found that the tumors in women under age 45 have certain identifiable patterns of cellular activity. The interesting part is that when these patterns are observed, the same tumor cell activity in older women usually leads to a better prognosis, while that activity in younger women typically leads to a poorer prognosis. One of the results of this discovery is the possibility of age-related treatments that are targeted to the patient based on the age of the patient.

The results of this study and research was presented at a recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology at their annual meeting in Chicago. The research and study was funded by the National Institute of Health.

The lead clinical research said that during the process by which cells will change and become cancerous, certain specific patterns were observed in younger women's tumors that were not seen in women over age 45 to 50. A conclusion that was reached by the time, based on this evidence, is that if they are able to inhibit those processes or patterns via the use of certain drugs, some of which are already available and some are currently undergoing evaluation, there is a much better chance at effectively treating the patient, possibly even curing them. Clearly, more research is required to determine which treatments or therapies are most effective in targeting the identified cellular activity, with the goal being to halt or shut down that particular activity and halting further tumor growth.

There were approximately 200,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer last year, and almost one-fourth of them (about 46,000) were under the age of 50.