Most current media reports have us believing that incidences of cancer are at epidemic proportions. What isn't making headlines is the fact that for many cancers, incidences of the disease are on the decline. This is what the American Council on Science and Health states as a result of a new report released from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the American Cancer Society, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If only reports like this were splashed all over our newspapers and television screens -- instead of grim reports of increasing diagnoses and deaths -- then maybe the outlook on cancer would be a bit more hopeful.

Rates of colorectal cancer, uterine cancer, stomach cancer, and cervical cancer have all been declining for two years. Drops in cases are mostly attributed to lower rates of smoking, better screening, and better treatments. For men, lung cancer death rates have also fallen.

So not all incidences of all cancers have dropped -- but some have. And this should at least keep us hoping, dreaming, wishing for a day when cancer is not even loosely associated with the word epidemic. And it should surely be cause for at least some media coverage.

A chemical found in hard plastics -- such as CD cases, baby bottles, food-storage containers, and even electronics parts -- has been loosely linked to incidences of breast cancer. Popular opinion cautions that if we were not worried about this news yesterday, we should not be worried about it today -- because studies are preliminary and nothing is definitive at this point. But there are definitely two sides to the debate over how harmful these hard plastics may be.

The chemical in question -- a pseudo-estrogen called bisphenol-A (BPA) -- appears to be absorbed by breast tumor cells, according to a new study published in the August 28 issue of Chemistry & Biology. Previous studies have linked small exposures of BPA to prostate abnormalities in mice that suggest a link between the plastic chemical and human prostate cancer. Some studies even theorize that embryonic and fetal exposure might influence mental retardation and birth defects. And because this pseudo-estrogen is a synthetic material that in human cells can trigger estrogenic effects, breast cancer now comes up as a disease that may result from this questionable chemical.

Critics say that average levels of the chemical found in urine is infinitesimally small -- about one part per billion. Some say the results of this research come from in-vitro studies that one expert says can never fully explain human disease. Yet the real crux of the matter, according to another expert, is that we are surrounded by all sorts of chemicals that are pseudo-estrogenic -- not just BPA -- and it's the cumulative effects that we do need to worry about.

I ran into a neighbor the other day at the grocery store. She has breast cancer, has just finished her final chemotherapy treatment, and proudly displays her bald head as she enthusiastically takes on life. I introduced her to my husband, we all chatted, and then we parted ways. And soon after, my husband asked me if she is the neighbor whose husband we spoke with just recently about his wife's breast cancer journey. I told him this was a different woman -- another neighbor with breast cancer. Including me, that makes three of us with breast cancer in the same community of just 200 houses. And this shocked my husband -- that there are three of us in the same neighborhood with breast cancer. But I told him this really is not surprising, that it's probably not all that uncommon. And I told him there are probably more women with breast cancer residing in the houses on the streets that surround us. We just don't know them all.

I've heard many times that most people are personally touched by breast cancer in some way. It might be each of us with the diagnosis. Or it may be a family member. Or a friend. Or a co-worker. Or a neighbor. Because incidences of breast cancer have increased over the years, and in the United States, the rate of new cases has been increasing more than one percent per year since the 1940s. In the 1980s, the rate of new cases rose markedly -- perhaps due to increased and better screening -- and only recently have cases been leveling off. It is estimated that just over 200,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in American women in 2006.

One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life. And that is startling. Which is why it is not so startling to me that there are three of us in my neighborhood with this common disease -- the second-leading cause of cancer death for women, after lung cancer.

I never thought the time would come when I could fill a page with names of people I know who have cancer or have died from cancer. When my mom's very best friend died years and years ago of pancreatic cancer, it seemed a remote chance that something like that would happen to someone I know. And then slowly, either because cancer cases increased or because my awareness increased -- or both -- my list of people with cancer grew and grew and grew. And now it's quite long. And it's quite disturbing. And it's empowering too -- because most people on my growing list are surviving. And here are seven survivors who are somehow connected to me -- seven survivors who make up just the tip of the cancer iceberg in my life that stretches far and wide.

I woke yesterday morning to voices on the Today Show telling me that the use of hair dye is linked to incidences of lymphoma -- a general term for a group of cancers that originate in the lymphatic system. I know I've heard in the past about the possible link between cancer and the chemicals that add color to hair -- but the connection has never been revealed as very strong and the topic did not ever apply to me so I filed the information in the back of my mind. But now, it appears the link may be stronger than originally thought -- and I recently dyed my own post-chemo brown hair -- so I listened more intently this time and learned about the study that implies that touching up my roots may not be a wise practice.

The results of a European study, appearing in the July 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, reveal that roughly 10 percent of lymphomas in women could be caused by the use of hair dyes. The data suggest a small increase in risk -- and clearly more research is necessary -- but what researchers have found is that for the women who have dyed their hair more than 12 times, the risk is highest. And those who colored their locks before 1980 have the greatest risk. Since 1980, chemicals thought to be cancer-causing were eliminated from dyes -- although it is still not definite whether or not current hair dyes are risk-free. It is definite, say researchers, that further study of this topic is important. In the meantime, I think I will let my artificial reddish chestnut hues fade away while I enjoy the plain brown hair that covers my once-bald scalp.