12/85Percentage of doctors in 1960 who said patients should be told the truth about their cancer: 18
Percentage who say that today: 70
7/89Number of coin-operated suntan-lotion spray dispensers in Ocean City, Maryland: 16
10/90Bottles of suntan lotion the U.S. Army purchased in August from a Kmart in Hinesville, Georgia: 25,550
9/90Number of U. S. factories that pose a “high risk” of cancer to nearby residents, according to the EPA: 149
8/91Federal funds the National Cancer Institute will spend this year interviewing Latin American tribal healers: $100,000
8/91Gallons of suntan lotion sold each summer at Empire Haven Nudist Park and Resort in Moravia, New York: 9
8/92Percentage of cancer specialists who say they would prescribe marijuana for their patients if it were still legal to do so: 48
10/94Maximum amount of radiation per American the government allows nuclear facilities to release each year, in millirems: 100
Chances that a person exposed to such radiation will get cancer, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission: 1 in 286
9/98Chance that a caller to the government’s cancer-information line gets a busy signal or is put on hold until they hang up: 1 in 3
9/98Chance that a cancer patient in a nursing home over the age of 85 does not receive adequate pain medication: 1 in 3
7/99Percentage by which the incidence of skin cancer rises for every 1 percent decrease in the size of the ozone layer: 2
9/00Percentage by which the cancer death rate in the area around Sydney’s Olympic Village exceeds the rest of the city’s: 8.5
Factor by which dioxin levels detected around the Village site during construction exceeded EPA guidelines: 1,540
9/00Number of the three cancer survivors on the Supreme Court who are also over 70: 2
7/01Rank of cancer and suicide, respectively, among the top causes of death of Japanese bureaucrats last year: 1,2
7/01Chance that an American will develop skin cancer in his or her lifetime: 1 in 5
8/01Ratio of the cancer rate on Puerto Rico’s main island to that on Vieques: 5:6
12/02Percentage by which the Pentagon’s September order for sunblock exceeded its last largest such order: 70
6/02Chance of contracting a “fairly common” form of colon cancer reported on in the New York Times April 4: 1 in 8,000
Chance of a child contracting the “rare disease” neuroblastoma, as cited by another Times article the same day: 1 in 7,000
6/03Average quality-of-life rating researchers assign U.S. children with cancer, on a scale of 1 to 100: 69
2/05Number of states where women seeking abortions are required to be told that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer: 3
Number of the eighty-nine experts convened in 2003 by the National Cancer Institute who found any evidence of such a link: 1
4/06Number of dogs that a California clinic trained to diagnose cancer by sniffing patients’ breath: 5
6/06Minimum amount that a Massachusetts special-ed teacher received in donations from 2003 to 2005 by faking cancer: $35,000
8/06Percentage by which white women who often spend time in the sun are less at risk of breast cancer than those who do not: 34
5/08Factor by which an uninsured American is more likely than an insured one to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer: 3