Female Breast Cancer Rates of New York

The social pattern I chose to map out was the rate of female breast cancer. The map above shows the total amount of cancer found in women in 2008 and then the total just the total number of female breast cancer cases. The darker the purple on the map is the higher rate of breast cancer cases are found in that specific area. The data from this map was found on the Department of Health website. Other information this specific data set shows the rates of cancer in men as well as women. The map above shows elevated rates of breast cancer in at least 11 counties across New York. The highest rate of breast cancer from 2008 is in the New York City area. Long Island, Erie county, Monroe County, and Onondaga also show more elevated rates of cancer than the rest of the state. According to the 2008 data Hamilton county had the lowest rate of breast cancer but the drastic population difference between Hamilton and other counties must be taken into consideration.

The pattern in the data shown may be expected if you take all the factors into consideration. There seems to be a correlation between densely populated areas and the rate of cancer. High populations present people with many challenging problems. The first of which is pollution. Air pollution in major cities causes poor air quality for its inhabitants. The second type of pollution to take into consideration is dump sites. Where there is a signifcant number of people there is also a amount of waste that needs to be disposed of. These factors combined make a dangerous cocktail of poisons for the human body. Another problem with high density areas is there can be a large poor population. This population may not have aduqate health care and funds to take care of themselves. There are many factors that could affect the high rates of cancer in certain areas although there is an obvious relation to population and population density.