Environmental Facilities and Cancer Mapping

Important Information

The Environmental Facilities and Cancer Map shows the number of people diagnosed with cancer (cancer counts) for the years 2003-2007 in small geographic areas of New York State. Locations of certain environmental facilities can also be viewed. These maps cannot show that an environmental facility causes cancer in a community for a variety of reasons.

Age is not taken into account

Cancer is much more common among older people, so communities with older populations are likely to have more cancer cases.

The environmental facility information only shows the locations of facilities

It does not contain any information about whether chemicals are released from these facilities or the likelihood that people may have been exposed to any chemicals that could cause cancer.

The map doesn't contain any information about important known individual risk factors for cancer

This includes factors such as 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 cancer counts reflect people's addresses at the time of their cancer diagnosis

It is possible that people with cancer lived elsewhere before their diagnosis. This is important because cancer can take many years (5 to 40 years) to develop. This is referred to as cancer latency. People's exposures earlier in life, at a different address, may have contributed to their cancer.

The populations shown are from the Year 2000 Census

This is the most recent population information available for areas of this size. Because the number of residents in each area is likely to have changed since 2000, comparisons of the number of cancer cases to the population shown should be made with caution.

Conclusion

Users will find that cancer is a very common disease. One of every two men, and one of every three women, will be diagnosed with cancer at some time in their life. Learn more about cancer.