Should a nonprofit cancer research center partner with the maker of an alcoholic beverage to raise money for breast cancer? The more wine consumed, the more funds for fighting cancer, goes the logic.

Should researchers studying the link between vitamin D and cancer accept money from the tanning industry? Make a donation to breast cancer research when you visit your local tanning salon.

Such collaborations between nonprofits and corporations have become increasingly common -- so seemingly well intentioned that their inherent conflicts are overlooked.

"Pasting a pink ribbon on a fundraiser" does not give nonprofits carte blanche to raise money any way they see fit, says a Bellevue woman who is protesting such campaigns as hypocrisy.

DEAN RUTZ/SEATTLE TIMES

While some studies have shown moderate consumption of red wine can reduce the build-up of plaque in arteries, other research has shown that wine, and alcohol in general, can increase the risk of breast cancer among women.

Last year, Jill Byington was diagnosed with a form of late stage breast cancer. The 51-year-old technical writer and mom blogs about her experience here. She said she's grown tired of what she calls "the routine assault of corporate pink ribbon fundraisers that are both annoying and foolish."

For her, particularly flagrant is the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center partnership with Fat bastard wines.

In the "Raise a Cup for the Cure" campaign, Fat bastard promises to donate 25 cents for every bottle of its wines sold in restaurants and shops up to $75,000. "By the end of this year's campaign, FAT bastard will have raised over half of a million dollars to help conquer this devastating disease," the press release gushes.

More than 40,000 people a year die from breast cancer. "The generous financial support and long-standing commitment of donors such as FAT bastard enable this crucial, life-saving research to continue," Jennifer Pawlosky, the research center's director of development marketing, says in a statement. "We are proud to be their partner in the fight against breast cancer."

The problem is that wine has been associated with a higher breast cancer risk. A study by Fred Hutchinson's own researchers showed that women who consumed an average of two drinks or more a day had a 24 percent increase in breast cancer over non-drinkers.

So a campaign encouraging the consumption of wine seems ill suited to this cause.

The Hutchinson Center issued a statement in response:
"Many different types of organizations and companies - including businesses that distribute and sell wine - choose Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as a beneficiary of their fundraising campaigns to support lifesaving research. We value the generosity of these donors."

Research at the center indicates that "to reduce the risk of breast cancer, women should limit alcohol consumption to no more than one drink per day, regardless of the type of alcohol."

However for men, the center's research also suggests that "drinking a glass of red wine a day may cut a man's risk of prostate cancer in half. This protective effect appears to be strongest against the most aggressive forms of the disease."

Many lifestyle factors are associated with cancer risk, from obesity to physical activity to alcohol intake, the center stated, and regular cancer screening, good nutrition and regular physical activity are recommended.

Jumping on the breast cancer band wagon next is the indoor tanning industry.

Tanning salons funding vitamin D research encourage "patrons of the professional indoor tanning community across North America" to donate $1 to $5 to support vitamin D-breast cancer research in the D-feat breast cancer campaign.

"The more you tan (and increase your risk for melanoma)," Byington writes, "the more money you raise for this research.

She questions money for research coming from a product that potentially causes the cancer the researchers seek to cure.

Put another way, "Is the risk of putting people in additional danger of contracting breast cancer by consuming wine worth the lives saved by the money raised for research?"

Where should the line be drawn on such fundraising? Some of the money from the Raise a Cup campaign goes directly to support patients, as in the Christina S. Walsh Foundation, which pays for treatment for uninsured breast cancer patients, even more critical now after the recession.

It may be one thing for such nonprofits to accept support but another to endorse a pink label on a product and encourage people to buy more of it thinking they're not harming themselves and even helping the cause.

With more public health focus on breast cancer awareness coming in October, Byington wants to pull the pretty pink ribbon off and expose the plain facts underneath. A project called Think Before You Pink aims to educate consumers.

Just as the best treatment gets at the root of the disease, she demands that we look at the root of the problem.