Cancer Deaths

They are citizen sleuths investigating a deadly mystery.Each month, the members of Anne Arundel County's Advisory Task Force on Cancer Control come together to review the clues: statistics on cancer victims, maps of hazardous waste sites and private wells, cancer deaths in dogs, and reports on the hazards of radon and overhead electrical lines.Halfway through their year-long assignment, the members of the group know there is no single culprit. They know that there are many reasons why Anne Arundel has the second-highest cancer rate in Maryland and why the state ranks third in the country in cancer deaths.

North Arundel Hospital plans to break ground today for a $15 million cancer center, billed as a comprehensive diagnostic, treatment and education facility to meet the needs of cancer patients in the county, especially those who now travel long distances for care. The 44,000-square-foot, three-story building, to be named the Comprehensive Cancer Center, will be constructed on the west side of the hospital's campus in Glen Burnie. The center will house radiation and medical treatment services, a linear accelerator that delivers radiation treatments, examination rooms and suites for patients receiving chemotherapy.

Nearly one of every five houses in Maryland has elevated levels of radon, but only about one in 10 homeowners has even checked for the radioactive, cancer-causing gas, new surveys show.Nineteen percent of 1,126 houses measured across the state were found to have radon concentrations greater than the action level set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a survey conducted over the past year by the EPA and the Maryland Department of the Environment."That's high, and that warrants some action," said Dr. Thomas J. Godar, a former president and adviser of the American Lung Association.

Here's a noteworthy twist on the news: The World Health Organization (WHO) is praising the fact that worldwide consumption of morphine more than tripled during the 1980s, rising from 2,345 kilos in 1980 to 7,206 kilos in 1990.Drug use is good news?Yes, because morphine use is a good measure of the quality of life and death for the 51 million people who die of cancer each year. For many of these people, a point comes where the only medical treatment that can make much difference is any care that relieves pain and lends comfort to a patient's final days.

WASHINGTON -- Over many years, John C. Bailar III has spoken unpalatable truths about the war on cancer, deeming it a failure in reducing deaths, and calling for more research on prevention, even if that means less research on cures.A physician and biostatistician, Dr. Bailar made himself unwelcome within the government's health establishment by showing, in clear numbers, that the quest for improved cures hadn't succeeded. Many cancer treatments are effective, he emphasized, but despite the expenditure of billions of research dollars, improvements for treating most cancers have been negligible.

Heart disease, stroke deaths drop by 30% The death rates for heart disease and stroke each dropped by about 30 percent between 1999 and 2006, allowing the American Heart Association to reach its 2010 goal of a 25 percent reduction in deaths four years early, researchers said last week. "It's one of the most remarkable achievements of modern medicine to have this kind of decline," said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, a cardiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles' Geffen School of Medicine who was not involved in the research.

A: My father was recently diagnosed with colon cancer at age 71. Does this increase my risk of developing colon cancer? Is there anything I can do to avoid getting it?Q: Like everyone else in this country, you have ample reason to worry about colon cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer death among Americans; in 1993 there were 152,000 new cases and 57,000 deaths from colon cancer. On average, Americans have a 6 percent risk of developing colon cancer during their lifetime, and a 2.5 percent chance of dying from it. There has been no decrease in the frequency of colon cancer in recent years.

THE RECENT debate over early detection of prostate cancer rekindles the words of Winston Churchill during World War II: "Action in pursuit of perfection equals paralysis." Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in American men; two every five minutes in this country are told they have it, and more than 30,000 will die from it this year alone. Millions of men and their families have already been devastated by prostate cancer. That's why millions of others don't need another excuse to avoid taking care of their health.

Los Angeles. -- When President Clinton had his first opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court Justice last year, he dithered for three months. By mid-June, when the indecision was becoming an embarrassment, Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers confirmed that the choice had narrowed to two people: Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Stephen G. Breyer, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston.Judge Breyer's nomination was imminent, White House sources were saying, when suddenly President Clinton named Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Fed up with bait-and-switch governmentIf you pay taxes in Howard County, you might want to read what follows very closely.In 1993, over the objections of many citizens, our county zoning board approved a category of zoning called "mixed-use district." This Columbia-style development category, having a mix of mid- to high-density housing, employment and open space uses, was put forth largely on the (questionble) tenet that tax revenues from the employment portion would help offset the costs to taxpayers generated by the residential part.