What's wrong with giving money for breast cancer research?

This morning's GreenSpace column is about outrage among critics over the nation's premier breast cancer foundation, Susan G. Komen, accepting money from a Texas company that provides services and equipment for natural gas and oil fields. The company also painted 1,000 of its drill bits pink and is sending them worldwide.

The critics say that since natural gas develoment -- fracking wells, in particular -- involves chemicals linked to cancer, Komen is disingenuous in accepting their money, and the company, Baker Hughes, is disingenuous in giving it.

Some thought the pink drill bits were so outlandish that it must have been a hoax, or something from the news satire organization, The Onion.

It wasn't.

I sought comment from both Komen and the compay, both by email and by phone.

Komen never responded, even though I lobbed them a softball question: Where would they be if they had to vet every donor to ensure that the donor didn't use or sell or was otherwise involved with cancer-causing chemicals? '

A Baker Hughes spokeswoman called me back, but said she couldn't comment.

She did, however, direct me to an industry website, Energy in Depth, which ran a column with outrage of its own.  It was too late to add this to the column, so here it is now:

The columnist, Steve Everly, call the criticism "shameful" and said that "fringe activists" had "arguably reached a new low: attacking an oilfield services and technology provider for donating money to a cancer-research charity."

You can read the full column here.

You can read the Sandra Steingraber column that started it all here.

A site with more information about the company's donation and pink drill bits is here.

I wound up talking with people about the ethics of giving and accepting money. In the '80s, one nonprofit official told me, groups accepted money from whomever.  The sources weren't important. What was important was the good work they could do with the money.

Now, however, she said, nonprofits often look for donors who are closely aligned with their mission. This sometimes means they lose out on big money.

What's the answer? Is there a middle ground? Are Komen and Baker Hughes a good fit or not? I'm sure the discussion will continue.

Let's just hope to keep it civil.