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Reports that per capita cigarette smoking in California has declined more than twice as rapidly compared with the rest of the United States. Statistics from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program; Editorial note from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

This study was conducted to determine whether rubberized playground surfaces made of recycled tires comply with state-mandated standards for impact attenuation (measured with an accelerometer), and whether their properties change in response to temperature or time. The Head Impact Criterion (HIC) standard of 1000 was found to be a more sensitive indicator of compliance than the G(max) standard of 200(g). Of 32 playgrounds tested, 22 (69 percent) failed the HIC standard. As the heights of playground structures increased, so did the likelihood that the rubberized surface below would fail the HIC standard. Rubberized surfaces gave stable readings for the first three months following installation, and higher values in response to increasing surface temperature. An excessively high percentage of playground surfaces made of recycled tires failed the state-mandated standards designed to prevent serious head injury from falls. Future failures might be prevented by requiring installers to perform post-installation testing to verify compliance.

Background: The lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is a frequently misinterpreted statistic. Risk projections over a shorter time period, conditioned on current age, may be less prone to misconceptions and more relevant to populations at different ages. The purpose of this study was to estimate the risk of developing breast cancer within the next 5, 10, or 20 years for women currently aged 30 to 70 years in California's four major race/ethnic groups., Methods: Life tables were used to obtain risk estimates based on 1993-1997 breast cancer incidence rates from the California Cancer Registry and statewide mortality rates., Results: For women currently aged 50, the estimated risk of developing invasive breast cancer within 5 years varied from 0.8% (1 in 133) among Hispanics to 1.3% (1 in 75) among Caucasians. Risk estimates within 10 years were 2.9% (1 in 34) among Caucasians, 2.3% (1 in 43) among African Americans, 2.0% (1 in 51) among Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 1.6% (1 in 63) among Hispanics. Within 20 years, estimated risks increased to 6.6% (1 in 15) among Caucasians, 5.0% (1 in 20) among African Americans, 3.9% (1 in 26) among Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 3.7% (1 in 27) among Hispanics. Risk estimates were 8% to 20% higher when in situ tumors were included in the calculations., Conclusions: Based on these estimates, the baseline risk of developing breast cancer in the next 1 or 2 decades of life varies by race/ethnicity and current age, but may be lower than the risk perceived by most women.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine temporal trends in breast-conserving surgery in California from 1988 through 1995., Methods: Logistic regression was used to analyze data on 104,466 cases of early-stage breast cancer reported to the California Cancer Registry., Results: A monotonically increasing trend in breast-conserving surgery was detected after adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, stage at diagnosis, and neighborhood education level. Breast-conserving surgery increased at similar rates among all racial/ethnic groups. Older age, Asian or Hispanic race/ethnicity, late-stage diagnosis, and residence in an undereducated neighborhood were factors associated with lower use of breast-conserving surgery., Conclusions: Although disparities are evident, use of breast-conserving surgery increased steadily in all groups examined in this study.

Objectives: Data from the California Cancer Registry were used to model the effect of race/ethnicity, census-derived socioeconomic status (SES), age, year, and stage at diagnosis on prostatectomy utilization in men diagnosed with prostate cancer from 1990 through 1993. Treatment received was compared with the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query (PDQ) to evaluate concordance., Methods: Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated to assess the likelihood of (a) receiving a prostatectomy and (b) receiving a treatment in concordance with the PDQ. Non-concordance was defined as a prostatectomy performed on a patient who was either diagnosed with AJCC stage III or IV prostate cancer, or was older than 70 years. All other treatments were considered compliant with the PDQ., Results: Regardless of the stage at diagnosis, men who were younger and lived in a neighborhood with higher income and education levels were the most likely to receive a prostatectomy as opposed to other treatments. Black men were the least likely to be treated with prostatectomy (OR = 0.6, CI = 0.5-0.6), and the differential was evident within all income levels examined. With respect to the PDQ, black men were 1.4 times more likely to receive concordant treatment than white men (OR = 1.4, CI = 1.3-1.5)., Conclusions: California black men are receiving less aggressive treatment (that is more concordant with the PDQ) when diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Background: There has been a perception that California Hispanic children have an unusually high cancer incidence rate, but to the authors' knowledge the only information regarding cancer rates in this population has been the tabular data published in reports issued by the California Department of Health Services. The California Cancer Registry has collected data regarding all cancers diagnosed in California since 1988., Methods: Data regarding all invasive cancers diagnosed in California Hispanic children age <15 years during the 7-year period 1988-1994 were analyzed. Cancers were grouped according to the International Classification for Childhood Cancers. Age-adjusted and age specific incidence rates were compared with the corresponding incidence rates among non-Hispanic white children., Results: Based on available demographic information, the overall incidence rate of cancer was approximately 7% lower among California children classified as Hispanic than among non-Hispanic white children. Hispanic children had higher incidence rates of lymphoid leukemia and gonadal germ cell tumors and a lower incidence rate of astrocytomas and carcinomas than non-Hispanic white children., Conclusions: These data do not confirm the perception that California Hispanic children have an unusually high cancer incidence rate but there were notable differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic white children with regard to the incidence rates of certain cancers. The perception may be due in part to the fact that childhood malignancies represented 3.1% of all cancers diagnosed among Hispanics but only 0.5% of all cancers diagnosed among non-Hispanic whites. This is explained by the lower incidence rate of cancer among California Hispanic adults than among non-Hispanic white adults and the difference in the age distribution of the two populations., (Copyright 1999 American Cancer Society.)