An updated atlas of maps illustrating cancer mortality trends over three decades among nonwhites was published. The rise in rates of oral cavity, laryngeal, esophageal and prostate cancers were 20 to 100 times greater than the corresponding trends among whites. The mortality patterns for most sites showed trends towards increasing geographic uniformity over time. The most notable exceptions to this pattern were the emergence in the 1970s of such rates for prostate cancer among black men in the South Atlantic states, and rising rates for stomach cancer among Native Americans in the Southwest. In a study of over 2.3 million cancer deaths in counties with fluoridated drinking water supplies, and over 125,000 incident cancer cases in fluoridated counties covered by two population-based cancer registries, we identified no trends in cancer risks that could be attributed to the consumption of fluoridated drinking water.
