Lung cancer refers to several different types of cancer which begin in the linings of the lungs. Lung cancer is currently the deadliest cancer, killing 1.3 million people per year. The five-year survival rate for lung cancer is less than 15%. Fortunately, however, lung cancer is also one of the most easily prevented of the major cancers. By far the most significant risk factor for lung cancer is tobacco use, including cigarette smoking.

ONEIDA — The city of Oneida was named the recipient of a $400,000 grant that will help residents keep their homes safe.

The Community Development Block Grant, awarded on Friday by New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation’s Office for Community Renewal, will provide funds to rehabilitate at least 16 homes in the city. As in recent years, the city will continue to take a scattered site approach in its selection of homes.

The Scattered Sites Housing Rehabilitation Program allows eligible homeowners city-wide to apply for funding the city receives through grants. In the past the city has implemented a targeted approach to dispense funding by selecting a specific neighborhood to rehab, Planning Director Cassie Rose said.

Test kits available for West Milford, Ringwood residents

Paterson — The Passaic County Freeholders announced today that Passaic County Department of Health will cooperate with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Radon Bureau in a special radon awareness program to promote testing for radon in homes.

In its program, the NJDEP Radon Bureau provides outreach assistance to promote radon testing in homes.

“Passaic County is pleased to cooperate with the NJDEP in this program to ensure that our residents are aware of the need to test their homes and reduce radon levels where necessary,” said Freeholder and West Milford resident Terry Duffy. “Testing is the only way to know if you and your family are at risk from radon. Radon testing is easy and problems can be fixed.”

For the 33 trapped Chilean miners potentially facing months in crammed quarters, their immediate health may be threatened by the air quality in the chamber and the limited ability to move, which can lead to blood clots. But even without such catastrophes, miners contend with many daily health dangers from working around dust, heavy metals, hazardous gases, fumes and loud noises.

Listed as the most dangerous industry for workers until 2001, mining is now outranked by industrial fishing, roofing and aircraft-related occupations, among others, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) attributes this improvement to the mining industry's increasing "culture of prevention," which includes stronger regulations, safer machinery and more education and training initiatives in the last 25 years.

Safety | City facility Can Test Samples for Mould, Asbestos and Radon

Take a deep breath and then relax because the breathing air laboratory at the Research and Productivity Centre in Fredericton has been renovated and expanded.

The centre has also received funding from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation to hire an air quality scientist.

The air quality scientist position will conduct breathing air research for the centre's clients to development new methods and technology and expand the professional services offering by the centre, said executive director Eric Cook in a news release.

"We'll be looking for someone with a master's or PhD in a relevant field like chemistry or industrial hygiene," he said.

The lab tests air samples for everything from mould to asbestos to radon.

CSUN community members now have the opportunity to learn about cancer through a class taught by a CSUN professor.

Dr. Steven Oppenheimer will teach “Biology of Cancer” every Monday during the Fall semester from 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., in Eucalyptus Hall 2132.

“There’s a tremendous importance for public awareness about cancer,” Oppenheimer said. “The topic of radon is especially relevant for cancer prevention. Everyone should test their homes for radon.”

Oppenheimer said some homes in the U.S. have so much radon, a colorless, odorless, tasteless radioactive gas, that it is estimated in posing a cancer risk equivalent to smoking 50 packs of cigarettes a day.

Alexander Tishbi, a radon expert for Indoor Safety, Inc.will present in Oppenheimer’s class on Nov. 29 and will discuss the hidden dangers of radon throughout U.S. households.

Oppenheimer said CSUN students can register for his class and if space permits, the public audit the class.

The operator of a uranium mill that contaminated groundwater and soil at Cañon City has indicated that it will be shut down rather than refurbished.

Cotter Corp. has informed regulators it will close two toxic-waste impoundment ponds at the mill "as soon as reasonably achievable," according to a letter Cotter sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Cotter, which had previously said the mill would be reopened, now has told state regulators it will stop testing for radon emissions at the site because it is "no longer an active facility" subject to regulation.

The apparent reversal, and Cotter's decision to stop testing for radon emissions, caught local leaders by surprise. The site has been designated a polluted Superfund site and Cotter has been responsible for monitoring to make sure cancer- causing radon was not escaping the facility.

Fremont County Commissioner Mike Stiehl questioned whether Cotter can stop tests. "That doesn't sound right to me."

The use of radiation in medicine accounts for most human exposure to ionizing radiation, according to a report issued today by the United Nations scientific committee on the effects of atomic radiation.

“Medical exposures account for 98 per cent of the contribution from all artificial sources and are now the second largest contributor to the population dose worldwide, representing approximately 20 percent of the total,” the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) said in a summary of the report to the UN General Assembly.

Radiation produces toxic free radicals when absorbed by the body. Exposure to high levels can cause substantial damage to human body tissues, and may lead to death. Prolonged exposure to lower levels is also associated with an increased risk of ill-health.

Cancer is the world's top "economic killer" as well as its likely leading cause of death, the American Cancer Society contends in a new report it will present at a global cancer conference in China this week.

Cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, malaria, the flu and other diseases that spread person-to-person, the report concludes.

Chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes account for more than 60 percent of deaths worldwide but less than 3 percent of public and private funding for global health, said Rachel Nugent of the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based policy research group.
Money shouldn't be taken away from fighting diseases that spread person-to-person, but the amount devoted to cancer is way out of whack with the impact it has, said Otis Brawley, the cancer society's chief medical officer.

More than a dozen public and community water systems in the Morris County region contain radon at levels higher than what a state environmental committee has recommended is safe.

But 18 months after the radon subcommittee of the Drinking Water Quality Institute suggested a standard for water systems, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection still has not put any regulations in place to limit the amount of the cancer-causing gas in water.

"Right now, the only thing they tell you to do is stand back from the water when you turn it on in the morning,'' said Jeff Tittel, head of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club. "They should have put together a standard decades ago.''
Radon is an odorless, colorless gas prevalent in the Highlands region, part of the Reading Prong geological area, due to the uranium-rich rock. Radon is released when uranium decays.