The New York Post, a New York City daily, ran a sensational headline on the front page of its April 12, 2000, issue: “Breast Cancer Hot Spots”. The news story reported that statistics and maps of breast cancer rates just released by New York State health authorities showed unusually high rates of breast cancer on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, as well as on Long Island and several other areas in New York City and upstate. These high rates were described by the state authorities as “not likely due to chance.” The residents of the Upper East Side, one of the most affluent areas of the city, were understandably alarmed. One woman interviewed was considering whether to move elsewhere, but had not yet decided. A second demanded that the two major party candidates for the U.S. Senate state their positions on the high rate. A third noted that there were no obvious sources of pollution in the neighborhood, no pesticide spraying or toxic waste dumps, that could explain why the breast cancer rate was high. Many people believe that breast cancer is caused by toxic agents in the environment. Victims of breast cancer we have met at sessions of support groups have described vividly the pains and discomfort of chemotherapy, radiation, and radical surgery; the nagging anxiety about a possible recurrence, the sense of disfigurement, of mutilation; the ignorance and insensitivity of many of the so-far healthy; the strengthening or weakening of bonds to those close to them: husbands, sons, daughters, parents, who either grow in understanding and compassion or fall short. But there is one common thread that runs through their stories: each of them feels there must be a reason why she, at this particular point in her life, should have gotten this terrible disease. Why me? Lucia D., in her late thirties, remembers that as a child of eight or nine growing up in Panama she and other children used to run after the truck that periodically sprayed DDT in their neighborhood and dance around in the spray. She is convinced that this childhood exposure is the reason she has breast cancer at such an early age.
Physical Findings in New York City Continuation School Boys
