There have been a few women who have mentioned clusters of cancer in their neighnorhoods.

I haven't experienced this personally, but I know of a couple of towns to the north of me where this happened.  There was a GE plant in one of the towns, and toxic chemicals like PCB's were dumped into the river there for years.  Also, there were gypsies who were spreading the PCB waste on driveways like driveway sealer, getting paid by the homeowners who didn't know what they were getting. There were and still are people who have gotten cancer from this.  GE is now spending billions to dredge the Hudson River in NYS to get rid of the PCB's.  A different chemical plant in that area may have also contributed to the damage.  I know there was also a toxic waste dump in one of the towns where homes had been built.  One street that was  best known for having that problem was where one of my ex co-workers lived.  She was a smoker, so she had a double whammy. She first got lung cancer and then developed kidney cancer and died after several years of fighting the two.

In addition, there was a clump of people who had cancer in Albany, NY, most of whom went to the same high school.  It was thought to have been caused by the nuclear testing that was done in Nevada in the 50's.  The radiation was picked up in air currents there and was expected to drift out to sea.  However, a bad rain storm brought the radiation down to earth in the Albany area.  Many of these high school classmates developed the same extremely rare cancer.  I can't recall what cancer it was now, but I think it was some cancer of the blood.  The radiation at the time was found and documented by a government contractor in a nearby town.

This whole area in general has a higher than normal incidence of cancer of various types. 

I went to the State University of New York at Albany, where a bunch of Long Island kids went.  I remember some of them mentioning Hicksville.  That was the first I'd heard of it.  

I really don't know how people's residences would be tracked when they have moved around a bit.  The cases I heard about were people who still live in the area.  I was in my bank one day and got on the subject of cancer with the teller.  She told me she'd lived right next door to the GE plant, and GE had offered her money for her house as a way of settling up for causing her husband's cancer death.

I do know there are tumor registrars in the hospitals in this state who report facts about cancers to the state health department.  I had to do part of their job back in the late 80's or early 90's when I worked in a hospital that didn't yet have people in that position.  Unfortunately, I really don't remember now what information had to be sent off on each patient.  I can't recall reporting any information on different places where they lived.  I may have been required to report a current address for the patient, but I think that would have been the limit of it.

I have heard at another area hospital where I worked that there are an abnormally high number of cancers in this area.  I think this information came from the facts collected by the tumor registrars and summarized by the state.

You didn't happen to live in NYS in the 50's or early 60's when the radiation from Nevada came down, did you?  I've gotten the impression you're not as old as I am.  Playing in the chemicals in the river certainly could have been a factor.      

california_artist said:

Pinky

I'm 67. Lived in New York, mostly on the island and in the city, til I was 21, when I moved to the Bay Area in California.

I like the idea of contacting hospital records offices.

 

claudia

i grew up in St. Louis, MO.  My mom had colon cancer, a brother died of colon cancer, and a brother died of Melanoma, and I have UPSC.  If you google Coldwater Creek St. Louis. You will see the unusually high number of cancers in that area.  There was a company called Mallinkrodt that moved toxic wastes around the area.  I did not play in Coldwater Creek, but do not know if the toxic waste were in our drinking water.  It is sad the number of young people that have been affected with Cancer and birth defects.  One high school Mc Cluer has really been affected.  My neice graduated from Mc Cluer and her mother died of breast cancer and her dad died of colon cancer.  So I do worry about her and hope she keeps up with her physicals.

One news report said eight zip codes were affected by this Coldwater Creek, but I could not find if the zip code I grew up in was one of them.  The main area is Florrisant MO which is getting all the publicity over the Brown shooting.  

pinky104 said:

Claudia

I didn't think of this when you first replied to me, but I just want to let you know that you shouldn't bother trying to contact hospital medical record offices.  There is a law now that prevents them from giving out medical information on their patients, although I'm sure they still have to report it to government agencies who keep the stats on cancer. You and I wouldn't be able to get the information from them.  If the hospital medical record office employees were to give out this information to the general public, they could be put in jail for violating the patients' privacy. 

I think that either the CDC or EPA, possibly NIH has information on this.  just a thought.  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

I live in a small town of about 1000 and I can't tell you how many cases of cancer have occered in this area.  It is almost a weekly occorence (sp) that someone new has been diagnosed with this desease. Almost all are different types, Men and women,  We do have a gold mine in the area that used syinide in it proccessing. and not we were informed that our city water had uranium it it and that if you have health issues to talk to your dr.. Mine said no one should be drinking it.  It really makes you wonder  Lou Ann