People With Cancer

I've met more people with cancer, in the last few months, than in my entire life. It seems like everyone I meet in Wenatchee has cancer, and I wonder what the rates are here, for a small town. I don't know if it's because of pesticides from the fruit industry, or what. But it seems no matter where I go, I am running into people who have cancer. On the East Coast, too, though, and also in Whatcom County, which is unrelated to Wenatchee, but I am just running into a lot of people with it.

With Wenatchee I do wonder what rates are. I know at one time I was curious and I contacted the health department and a cancer hotline which mailed me information about the cancer rates. I was studying how many reported cases of cancer there were in the area, in comparison with what the average rates were in other states and areas.

I think cancer statistics and reporting, is extremely important. When you see rates are higher in a certain area, you have to ask why. But then too, you need to know a patients history, and what their occupation was and if there were hazards, and where they lived and figure out possible environmental factors.

Knowing how many report cancer in a particular area isn't really enough. There needs to be cross-analysis combining rates with the various factors and attributing possible cause or factors to the most likely locations.

Like, a probability map, of rates of cancer if someone is living in a particular area for more than 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, and how the rates increase. And then something which does a cross-analysis considering what medications were taken, occupation, and other stuff.

There's got to be something like that out there.

If there's not, I think it would be an excellent project for a software programmer or designer. To create a system for information that will sort all of these things out, based on chance, probability, genetics, and then hard evidence.

I kind of wonder how many immigrants who work in the orchards, have later come down with serious forms of cancer, or their family members. I know it's probably better, short term, than starving somewhere where you can't make money, but everyone should know what the risks are of different chemicals. Right?