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For Immediate Release – “Play for Pink” should be called “Strokes of Death”

Mariner Sands Golf and Country Club, Stuart Florida is hosting the “Play For Pink” golf tournament to benefit Breast Cancer Research.  However, several studies including journalist Donna Kutt Nahas’research has shown a direct link from the pesticides sprayed on golf courses to cancer, breast cancer specifically.  Because fatty tissues in women’s breasts are more susceptible to retaining toxins and chemicals, a golfing fundraiser that is putting women at risk is more than a joke, it’s an insult.

The chemicals they use are considered carcinogens, linked to elevated levels of breast cancer, can be endocrine disrupters, sperm count reducers, can cause asthma and developmental disabilities in children.  If we want to save women’s lives, now is the time to take the first step and respect them by banning pesticides and harmful chemicals from golf courses.  The Breast Cancer Foundation should research where they hold their fundraisers to ensure women’s safety above monetary gain.

“By DONNA KUTT NAHAS (http://www.voai.org/donnakuttnahasjournalist.htm)

Published: July 25, 1999

FOR nearly a half-century, a steady diet of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides have helped keep Long Island's golf courses looking lush. But pressure from environmental groups and suspicions that the chemicals may be a factor in the Island's high breast cancer rate has led to a restriction in the use of chemicals at some municipal golf courses. And now, both counties are building or planning organic public courses.

When a good-guy organization hosts a golf tournament, it implicitly endorses a sport which is under attack by all kinds of environmental groups for its threats to public health. Golf has a substance abuse problem in the form of pesticide dependency, and some public health researchers have argued that it may be contributing to the excesses in breast cancer among professional women golfers.

Some researchers also argue that golf courses create risks of childhood cancers when pesticides from golf courses drift into lawns, homes and water supplies. I make a habit of pointing out that golf course supervisors are one of four groups suffering from excess rates of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (along with Vietnam vets exposed to Agent Orange, farmers and pesticide applicators).

Sending women onto pesticide-saturated grass to raise money for breast cancer seems problematic to me when the sponsoring organization is one that is committed to addressing the environmental causes of cancer. While the commitment of the organization may be unshakable, the methods used to do its work and the larger social effects of those methods must be questioned.”

Bill Macdowell has a personal interest in pesticides and their harmful effects after his mother had both her breasts removed.  He also lost his beloved pet, Loompi allegedly to pesticide poisoning. View his site http://www.voai.org/golf.htm. His concern is for his wife and women everywhere.  He would like to hold accountable golf courses, pesticide corporations and our government for not protecting our citizens and creating a safe environment in which to allow women to survive without the threat of harmful chemicals.

Bill Macdowell

5370 Merion Way

Stuart, Florida 34997

772 283-3106

For more information on pesticides and their harmful effects, go to www.alternative-lawncare.com or contact Dagny McKinley -  dagny@undiscoveredearth.com