WHEREAS, the report Cancer Incidence in the San Francisco Bay Area 1988-1993, produced by the Northern California Cancer Center, found that breast cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women of all racial and ethnic groups in San Francisco; and,

WHEREAS, based on 1993 early diagnosed cases, San Francisco had 3.6% of the breast cancer cases in the State of California, although San Francisco comprises only 2.4% of the State's population; and,

WHEREAS, the 1994 report also found that rates of breast cancer for Latina and Asian women in the San Francisco/Oakland area are higher than other regions of the State, with sharply increased incidence rates for all racial/ethnic groups, especially white and Filipina women; and,

 WHEREAS, the San Francisco Department of Public Health conducted a study, Comparison of Incidence of Cancer in Selected Sites between Bayview Hunters Point and the Bay Area, and found that African-American women under age fifty in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood had nearly twice the expected rate of breast cancer compared with other African American women under the age of fifty in San Francisco as a whole; and,

WHEREAS, the mortality rate from breast cancer is highest among women age 50 and older but is higher among Chinese women living in San Francisco, and significantly higher among African-American women living in San Francisco; and,

WHEREAS, the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry Report, published in 1994 by the Northern California Cancer Center, found that breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer deaths after lung cancer among Bay Area women; and,

WHEREAS, the Health Commission is committed to promoting and providing screening and early detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer throughout the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the Community Health Network and throughout the greater health care community in San Francisco; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the Health Commission designates the month of October as Breast Cancer Awareness month and urges the Department of Public Health to schedule breast cancer awareness activities to honor this effort.

I hereby certify that the foregoing resolution was adopted by the Health Commission at its meeting of Tuesday, October 7, 1997.