One in three people will contract cancer, and one in four will die from the disease.

Within five years, cancer will surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death, according to the American Hospital Association.

In 1994, 1.2 million new cancer cases were added to the more than eight million people in the U.S. who have already been diagnosed with cancer.

Since 1950, the overall cancer incidence has increased by 44 percent; the incidence of breast cancer and male colon cancer by about 60 percent; testis, prostate and kidney by 100 percent; and other cancers, such as malignant melanoma, multiple myeloma and some lymphomas, by over 100 percent.

The estimated annual cost of cancer to the United States, excluding incalculable psychosocial costs, is $110 billion, approximately 2 percent of the GNP.

An estimated 80 million people have health insurance insufficient to cover the costs of a catastrophic illness such as cancer.

Annual production rates for synthetic, carcinogenic and other industrial chemicals exploded from 1 billion pounds in 1940 to more than 500 billion pounds annually during the 1980s.

Recent National Cancer Institute studies have linked: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and exposure to solvents, oils, and greases; elevated risks for multiple myelorna among men and women employed in the textile and plastic industries; lymphoma among laboratory workers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and lung cancer among workers who developed silicosis.

The rates of certain types of cancer among some industrial workers are up to 10 times higher than in the general population. Children of workers handling chemical carcinogens have sharply increase cancer rates. For example, the risks of childhood leukemia are increased two-to-five-fold if, during their mother's pregnancies, their fathers worked with spray paints, dyes or pigments.