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CAPITOL
New law improves NY cancer tracking
Paterson signs bill to create disease map
BY VALERIE BAUMAN The Associated Press

    Gov. David Paterson signed more than 70 bills into law Friday, including one that will give New Yorkers more clues in tracking causes of cancer found in the environment.
    The bill requires health care providers and the state to collect more data on cancer patients than the federal Centers for Disease Control mandates, so the state can create maps of cancer incidence for the public.
    “We’re now going to be able to focus research efforts on these strange and disturbing cancer clusters,” said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat who sponsored the bill in the Assembly. “With any luck, we’ll know which ones are statistical accidents and which ones are related to pollution and environmental problems.”
    Sen. Tom Libous, a Binghamton Republican and co-sponsor of the bill, said the maps are essential tools needed to find the causes of cancer.
    “We all want to find out the truth about how pollution in Endicott, Hillcrest and other areas of the state has potentially impacted the health of our families and neighbors,” Libous said, referring to communities in Broome County.
    The Health Department currently collects information on what body part cancer appears in, what cell type and how advanced the disease is, said department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton. Officials also collect data on where cancer patients were born and where they currently live.
    The first cancer maps will be available from the state in June of 2009. They will be posted on The state Department of Health Web site for the public to review. Later maps will show cancer clusters grouped by types of cancer.
    Among the bills signed into law and released Friday were:
    A measure that prohibits selling gasoline at different wholesale prices depending on where in the state it’s being sold.

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The first cancer maps will be available from the state in June of 2009. They will be posted on The state Department of Health Web site for the public to review. Later maps will show cancer clusters grouped by types of cancer.