The Cancer Map

Where's The Cancer In Your Community?

The NYS Department of Health has posted an interactive map, detailing the number of cancer cases, zip code by zip code, block by block.

Frightening, perhaps, what with claims over the years of "cancer clusters," particularly here on Long Island.

Don't draw any conclusions, however, as the mapping of so-called "environmental facilities" does NOT take into account risk factors, such as age, tobacco use, alcohol use, radiation exposure, infections, diet, sunlight, physical activity and family history, which are known to play important roles in what causes cancer.

The map -- which can be found at   https://apps.nyhealth.gov/statistics/cancer/environmental_facilities/mapping/map/ -- only shows where people resided when they were diagnosed with cancer.

As per the NYS Department of Health, "One of every two men, and one of every three women, will be diagnosed with cancer at some time in their life."

With MTBE spills, toxic plumes leeching downward toward the aquifers, superfund sites, and the like, guess we didn't need a map to tell us that. . .