Protect Our Breasts, a communications and awareness initiative based at the University of Massachusetts, launched its “Don’t Pink About It, Think About It” campaign last week. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the group is using this month to further spread its message of breast cancer prevention.

“It’s the perfect place and the perfect time to spread our message, so we thought, ‘Let’s share it,’” said senior marketing major Riki Adams, the group’s public relations coordinator.

The group recently released a two-minute video about their “Don’t Pink About It” campaign, which provides details about their current social media contest encouraging people to share pictures of the things or people they want to protect from toxins that contribute to breast cancer.

Sharing these images through social media with “#ProtectOurBreasts” enters people into a contest to win a basket of safe products.

“We focus on the things we do have control over,” said Lia Delaney, a junior public health major. “It is possible to choose safer alternatives, products that have safer ingredients.”

The group will also be engaging with the UMass community by giving out stickers around campus and will also be featured at an upcoming hockey game.

Cynthia Barstow, the group’s executive director, was motivated to start the group after her breast cancer diagnosis came at the same time as the President’s Cancer Panel released a report that the role of the environment in cancer had been “grossly underestimated.” She was already involved in the world of natural and organic products and started thinking of ways that people could reduce their own breast cancer risk. Then she found that the two were connected.

Barstow, a UMass marketing professor, was approached by some of her students who wanted to get involved with the project. She initially planned on writing a book, but the students wanted to focus on strongly impacting their age group.

In October 2011, Protect Our Breasts was launched. Barstow decided to focus solely on millennials in December 2011, after a report was released that breast cancer is a life stage disease, meaning that the cancer ranges from stage zero (earliest detection of breast cancer development) to stage four (severe progression of the breast cancer to other parts of the body).

“Women age 18 up to their first pregnancy are most vulnerable to toxins in the environment that can cause breast cancer because their bodies are constantly changing,” said Barstow. “So this age group is the most critical to reach.”

“Our focus on this age group is unique,” Delaney said. “It’s peer-to peer.”

Seventy percent of cancers are attributed to environmental causes, according to the presidential report. Protect Our Breasts wants to reduce that number by raising awareness about the everyday toxins that exist and how students can reduce their risk. This includes using beauty products with safer chemicals, eating organic food that has not been sprayed with damaging pesticides and eliminating unhealthy cleaning supplies in favor of safer alternatives.

“People know that there are things that increase your cancer risk, but they don’t know what to focus on,” said senior marketing major Ariel Urban. “We make it easier for them to change their ways.”

The group does this by partnering with organic companies to see if they are interested in supporting Protect Our Breasts. These companies send the group product samples, which they can then pass out to people.

“This helps people make the connection to safer alternatives,” Urban said.

The products are tested not only by the companies themselves, but also by the Protect Our Breasts Science and Standards Advisory board, which examines the packaging of the products.

“Pesticides can leach into the products through the packaging,” Barstow said. “We want to make sure the product is completely safe and organic, or at least comparable. We don’t hand out a product without it being vetted by the board.”

The executive board is composed of Barstow and seven undergraduate students who meet three times a week to discuss strategies for spreading their message and sharing knowledge. Each of the women has a specific area that they research regarding breast cancer risks.

Yuliana Motyl researches fruits and vegetables. As a senior studying sustainability and marketing through the Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration (BDIC) program, she brings an understanding of pesticides and organic farming to the group.

“Because we’re a multidisciplinary group, the perspectives are different among the group,” Delaney said. “There are people who know science and also people who know marketing.”

“This group is so eye-opening and really inspiring,” said Kelsie Mitchell, a junior public health major who researches water and plastics. “I’m so inspired by what we do here and by learning about what we can change.”

“I look at the world differently now,” Riki Adams said. “Once I learned about it I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And the actual impact we have is motivation.”

The group has over 4,000 likes on Facebook, and the members view each of those likes as someone whose life can be changed by the content that they post.

“It’s nice to know you might potentially be saving a life,” Motyl said. “The exposure is awe-inspiring. And we also learn a lot from sharing the message. Every conversation I have with someone about it, I find I’m learning more about ways to spread awareness.”

Not only does Protect Our Breasts impact the people that they reach, but it’s impacting the executive board as well: “It’s a great intersection of my majors, and it’s helped me figure out what I want to do,” said Natasha Merchant, a public health and economics double major.

The group is excited about their current campaign.

“We want to take Breast Cancer Awareness Month to show how different we are. We want pink to signal protection and prevention, not necessarily the cure,” Adams said.

“It’s my hope that by the time current college students have children, this group will be irrelevant because everyone will be using safe products,” Barstow said.

Protect Our Breasts (protectourbreasts.org) can be followed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Eleanor Harte can be reached at [email protected].