"At mid-century a cancer diagnosis was the expected fate of about 25 percent of Americans – a ratio Carson found so shocking that it inspired the title of one of her chapters – while today, about 40 percent of us (38.3 percent of women and 48.2 percent of men) will contract the disease sometime within our lifespans. ... Although most studies are considered preliminary, links between the presence of hazardous waste and cancer in the surrounding community have indeed been documented." (Sandra Steingraber, LIVING DOWNSTREAM, 1997, p. 40, 69)

    The alarming rate of increase of cancer and its tie to hazardous waste should provide a warning of major lawsuits for Waste Management Inc. (WMI). WMI holds over 70 hazardous Superfund sites plus other hazardous landfills. But WMI has in the past been trying its best to escape responsibility for these hazardous landfills by trying to stall the EPA or by denying legal responsibility. 

   The 1998 New York State Department of Health study reports a four-fold increased chance of bladder cancer or leukemia from escaping landfill gas. Rachel's reports the results of the study.

   A 1997 government study showed increased cancer for children from environmental toxins which are found in abundance in Superfund sites.

   Studies have also shown that environmental chemicals act like estrogens  appearing to have a close relationship to breast cancer.