Cuomo to Democratic presidential candidates:
Endorse ‘Make America Safer Pledge’
Caribbean L Q ife, Aug. 9-15, 2019 3
By Nelson A. King
Physicians at Cornell Center for
Health Equity at New York-Presbyterian
(NYP) Hospital have issued a stark
disclosure that cancer is now the leading
cause of premature death before
age 65 in all of Brooklyn’s Community
Districts.
Moreover, Dr. Erica Phillips, associate
professor of Clinical Medicine
and director of Community Outreach
and Engagement, told a community
round table about health disparities
in the prevention and control of cancer,
at Vanderveer Park United Methodist
Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn, that
cancer will become the leading cause of
death in the US by 2020.
Dr. Phillips based her conclusion on a
2016 report by the Atlanta-based Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC).
“A combination of increased prevention
and improved medical treatment
of cardiovascular disease (CVD)
has allowed cancer to gradually replace
heart disease as the leading cause of
death in high-income countries,” she
said.
With average annual cancer cases of
39,377 in New York City, in a population
of 8.3 million, Dr. David N. Nanus,
Director of Oncology Clinical Services
at Weill Cornell Medicine Meyer Cancer
Center, said that Brooklyn has the
highest annual cancer rate of 11,531;
followed by Queens (10,766); Manhattan
(8,217); the Bronx (6,096); and Staten
Island (2,767).
He identified prevalent cancers in
Brooklyn as prostate, gastrointestinal,
gynecological and lung.
Dr. Phillips said the age-adjusted
death rate per 100,000 for malignant
neoplasms (cancer) in Brooklyn in 2016
is as follows: Greenpoint (118); Downtown
(104.3); Brooklyn / Heights / Slope
(149.7); East New York / New Lots
(139.7); Sunset Park (143.4); Borough
Park (120.7); Flatbush/East Flatbush
(120.7); Canarsie and Flatlands (134.,7);
Bay Ridge / Bensonhurst (123.9); Coney
Island (145.4); and Williamsburg/Bushwick
(131.8).
She said based on the New York State
Cancer Registry age-adjusted death rate
in 2016, the mortality for lung cancer in
Brooklyn was 24.3, compared to 21.7 in
Manhattan.
For colon cancer, the mortality rate
was 13.3 in Brooklyn, compared to 11.5
in Manhattan.
The mortality rate for prostate cancer
was 18.2 in Brooklyn, compared to
19.3 in Manhattan.
Breast cancer’s was 20.0 in Brooklyn,
compared to 18.8 in Manhattan.
In Brooklyn districts, Coney Island
was second for lung, colon and breast
cancer; Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown
Heights were first for breast cancer,
second for prostate cancer and fourth
for both lung and colon cancer; and
Flatbush and East Flatbush were third
for colon and prostate cancer.
Dr. Phillips said cardiovascular disease
and cancer share several common
risk behaviors, such as physical inactivity,
unhealthy diets leading to obesity,
excess alcohol and smoking.
“Yet, few health promotion messages
discuss the similarities and common
prevention strategies,” she lamented.
Dr. Phillips disclosed that “concerted
efforts” contributed to increasing
screening of colonoscopy rates from 42
percent in 2003 to 62 percent in 2007
and a screening rate of almost 70 percent
in 2014, “with the elimination of
racial and ethnic disparities in colonoscopy
screening rates.”
Alan Lee, chief operating officer of
NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, said
NYP Community Outreach in Brooklyn
provides over 350 events annually, serving
more than 20,000 people.
By Nelson A. King
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on
Wednesday called on the Democratic
presidential candidates to endorse the
“Make America Safer Pledge,” a 4-point
plan to keep Americans safe from gun
violence.
Immediately following the horrific
mass shootings in El Paso, Tx and Dayton,
Oh earlier this week, Cuomo condemned
President Trump and urged
the US Congress to follow New York’s
lead and pass significant gun safety
measures.
Under his leadership, Cuomo said
New York has passed “the strongest
gun safety laws in the nation, including
the SAFE Act in 2013, which keeps
guns out of the hands of convicted
felons and individuals with a mental
illness, ensures private gun sales are
subject to a background check, bans
high-capacity magazines and assault
weapons, and toughens criminal penalties
for illegal gun use.”
The governor wants Democratic
presidential candidates to support the
following gun safety measures: Outlaw
assault weapons and high-capacity
magazines; create a mental health data
base to prevent the dangerously mentally
ill from purchasing a firearm;
pass universal background checks
closing the private gun sales loophole;
and pass Red Flag legislation preventing
individuals who pose a risk to
themselves or others from purchasing
a firearm.
Following the Sandy Hook tragedy
in 2013, Cuomo championed and
passed the SAFE Act, “which enacted
the strongest gun control laws in the
nation.”
Since the passage of the SAFE Act,
the Office of the Governor said 139,371
reports from mental health professionals
have been received by state officials
intended to keep weapons away from
people with mental illnesses that are
likely to “engage in conduct that will
cause serious harm to self or others.”
These reports - which represent
nearly 98,000 people with a potential
dangerous mental disposition - are
used to notify appropriate local licensing
officials who suspend or revoke
weapon licenses and prompt local law
enforcement officials to remove weapons
that are not surrendered, Cuomo’s
office said.
“New York State passed the laws six
years ago and they have worked,” it
said. “No legal gun owners’ rights have
been violated, but unnecessary, dangerous
weapons are off the streets, and
dangerously mentally ill people cannot
by guns.”
“New York State is the laboratory;
we provided the experiment,” Cuomo
said. “Now, do it nationwide.”
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
J. Conrad Williams Jr. / Newsday via Associated Press, Pool
Cancer leading cause of premature death in Brooklyn
Dr. Erica Phillips, associate professor
of Clinical Medicine and director of
Community Outreach and Engagement,
Weill Cornell Medicine, Meyer
Cancer Center, Cornell Center for
Health Equity, New York-Presbyterian.
Photo by Nelson A. King